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The World Trade Organization: A Giant Step Toward Managed Trade |
| Section: CURRENT ISSUES / COMMENTARY |
| Author: James M. Sheehan |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 10/1/1994 |
| Size: 1,814 Words, 11,579 Characters |
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The global trade accord negotiated by the Clinton administration has been heralded as a victory for free trade and open markets by Democrats and Republicans alike. GATT skeptics are routinely dismissed as protectionists and isolationists. But few have considered the possibility that the new GATT agreement may well be a step toward restriction of trade, not its liberalization.
Whether the world trade accord promotes free trade or not will depend entirely on the nature of its new international bureaucracy, the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is modeled on the International Trade Organization (ITO), a global trade body proposed after World War II. The ITO was intended to be the third leg of the Bretton Woods system to oversee the world's economy, along with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The ITO concept died in the U.S. Senate amid concerns about its impact on national sovereignty.
Similar concerns are being raised about the WTO because of its enhanced powers. Not only will the WTO enforce the treaty through dispute settlement procedures, it will also promulgate new trade rules and regulations for a growing...
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...partners, the WTO has binding authority over its member nations.
Voting in the WTO could become more politicized, diminishing the role of compromise.
The only official of the federal government who can cast votes in the WTO is the president's Trade Representative.
If any nation refuses to bring its laws into conformity with the WTO, it is subject to trade sanctions.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
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articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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