Book Description
Surveying eight years of the WTO's gradual erosion of democracy around the world. No country can be allowed to resist American cultural imperialism.—US Chamber of Commerce letter to the Office of the US Trade Representative, 1996 When trade bureaucrats, government ministers and heads of state from around the world gather in Mexico this September for a meeting of the World Trade Organization, they will be confronted by the opposition that has followed the group since it was set up eight years ago, from Seattle to Quebec to Genoa. As Lori Wallach ably demonstrates in this punchy new book, the organization's detractors have ample cause for protest. Whose Trade Organization? documents the WTO's persistent undermining of the attempts by governments around the world to maintain independent standards on everything from food safety and public health to protections for workers and the environment. With updated, case-by-case studies, the book exposes the lopsided agreements, secret tribunals and legal challenges that are the tools of the WTO's trade, and reveals the core of an aggressive agenda for corporate-led trade liberalization. With an introduction by Ralph Nader, Whose Trade Organization? shows how the WTO can be effectively challenged and the way to build a public-centered, democratic alternative.
About the Author
An essential handbook for activists who want to challenge the system in the name of liberty, equality and democracy. (John Nichols)
Whose Trade Organization?: A Field Guide to the World Trade Organization FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Here is the definitive guide to the WTO. It reveals which WTO policies have led to U.S. job losses, the race to the bottom in wages, unsafe food, attacks on environmental and health laws, and burgeoning international inequality. Want to know why the WTO attracts passionate protests all over the world? Public Citizen advocates Wallach and Woodall carefully document the WTO's nine-year track record with riveting case-by-case accounts. And trade is the least of it: this book shows how the WTO chills government actions to fight sweatshops, make lifesaving drugs available, and protect endangered species - and even limits our elected governments' ability to maintain policies on everything from meat inspection to media concentration." Whose Trade Organization? offers first steps toward a democratic, accountable alternative. It reminds us that change is not only necessary - it's possible.
Art & Photography
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