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Monday
July 23, 2001

WTO neither fair nor free

In his opinion piece "Share the blame", Dr. Sagafi-nejad makes the erroneous assumption that joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) will somehow be a 'good thing' for Iran. Without so much as a critical analysis of the WTO and its significant failure to uphold even its own loudly professed principles, we are expected to believe that exclusion from this super-rich bully club is somehow a 'shortcoming'.

The claim that the "WTO's basic pillars are free trade and distortion free economic systems" is a fallacy. It cannot be supported because most of the countries included in this club break the agreements as and when it suits them. I hope that Dr. Sagafi-nejad is not going to ask us to believe that trade sanctions levied against countries (i.e. Iran and those who do business with Iran) for disagreeing with WTO members (i.e. the United States) are in someway promoting free/fair trade principles. They are not. True free/fair trade is an active policy of engagement in which the market is a tool for greater good (i.e. economic justice leads to other wider forms of social justice).

The notion that the WTO has 'pillars' of belief illustrates the religious-like fanaticism that is being used to idolize the power of the super-rich. It is dangerous. Freedom and fairness have no place in the WTO's scheme of things. It is a club of the super-rich designed to wheedle and bribe changes in the domestic policies of poorer nations who are then forced to submit to a regime that perpetuates their own economic domination. The market is not and should not be the altar before which we are all made to kneel and beg and flagellate ourselves.

A more productive focus for the economists of countries like Iran to focus their attention on would be how to achieve economic justice for poorer nations. While the WTO members at the G8 summit posture and promise behind phalanges of police and barbed-wire barricades in Genoa, the most serious damages to true free/fair trade and the equalizing potential of the market are being witnessed in the poor nations as they face the sanctions and whimsical aid packages bestowed upon them by the super-rich. Finding the means to pursue economic justice and secure it in the face of the absolute power of the WTO is vital to any nation that wishes to retain its independence and retain control over its domestic economic policy. For Iran our future independence and our nationhood will depend on it.

In the interests of fairness Dr. Sagafi-nejad did briefly touch upon the imperfections of the WTO, but the argument that we must join it simply because it is there is not compelling. Fascism spread throughout Europe as Hitler progressed through the 1930s, and there were those in England and America (namely the super rich) who thought some of his ideas were pretty good too. Some even thought we should join him. Injustice, is injustice, is injustice. It takes many different shapes and forms but it won't go away unless we challenge it. We should not ever support the domination of our country by laws and rules that do not spring from the hearts, minds and will of the people. As Iran struggles for democracy, I can think of no crueler irony than that it should be absorbed into one of the least democratic international clubs ever devised.

Here is the clincher: The WTO is a club of companies, not countries. National interest is simply a camouflage for large multinational conglomerates that fuel the goals of the WTO. Behind the votes, behind the policies when you break down the cases before the WTO such as the recent well-known European vs. US 'banana war' we're not seeing countries dictating trade practice, we're seeing companies dictating trade practice, companies which have interests in more than one member country and are able to cleverly play one off against another.

In the case of the banana war it was Del Monte, Chiquita and Dole Food Co. pitting their political and economic clout (paid for by the US of A) against WTO members like the nations of St Lucia and Dominica who were supported by the European Union. Guess who won? (And NO you don't get a prize - Del Monte, Chiquita and Dole Food Co. get the prize for winning on every front). Taxpayer dollars and pounds are being used to arbitrate the cases of these companies, many of which possess wealth greater than many small countries (like St Lucia and Dominica). I would defy Dr. Sagafi-nejad to explain where we as citizens with our votes have any control over that. It is the function of the WTO that renders it inherently undemocratic. That's why we as Iranians don't need it.

Finally, the reforms Dr. Sagafi-nejad suggests are worthy of pursuit for Iranian economic recovery and the criticism of Iran's 'ostrich mentality' is accurate. There is no doubt that Iran's economic situation is in dire need of firm and sustained action. The goals that motivate that action should be the following: to create jobs, increase productivity in sectors outside mining and petroleum, improve infrastructure, and create an environment for sustaining foreign investment. All of which can be achieved without belonging to the WTO, all of which should be achieved without belonging to the WTO. We can join the global economy and we should, but on our own terms.

Minou

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