Whose Trade Organization?: Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy [Paperback]

Michelle Sforza (Author), Lori Wallach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1999

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.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lori M. Wallach, Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.

Lori Wallach is director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. Compared to "Ralph Nader with a sense of humor" in a recent Wall Street Journal profile and dubbed "the trade debate's guerrilla warrior" in a National Journal profile, Wallach is a leader in the worldwide movement for fair trade and investment policy. For eight years, Wallach, a trade lawyer, has represented Public Citizen in promoting the public interest in international commercial agreements in every forum: the U.S. Congress, courts, and government agencies; other nations' parliaments and governments; international institutions; and in the news media. Wallach has worked closely with congressional, environmental, labor and other allies and with an international network of citizens' groups to foster a debate about globalization and its effects on jobs and wages, the environment, public health and safety, and democratically accountable governance. Her previous publications include numerous trade analyses and reports and chapters in several anthologies. She has served as a commentator in the U.S. national and international news media. Wallach was a founder of the Citizens Trade Campaign, the national coalition of consumer, labor, environmental, family farm, religious and civil rights groups representing over 11 million Americans and now serves as its vice president. She also is a founding board member of the International Forum on Globalization. Wallach is a graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard Law School. A member of the Wisconsin bar, she was awarded the Harvard Law School Kaufman Fellowship for excellence in public interest. Prior to law school, Wallach worked on Capitol Hill, in television news and on electoral campaigns. She is 35 years old and lives in Washington, D.C., in an old row house she is slowly but surely renovating.

Michelle Sforza, Research Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch

An expert on trade policy and international commercial agreements, Michelle Sforza is the research director at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. Sforza has authored numerous reports and analyses, covering such topics as the consequences of NAFTA for the U.S., Mexico and Canada, and the potential impacts of the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment. Her articles have appeared in the Nation and the Ecologist, among other publications. Sforza has been interviewed on Canadian public television, Pacifica Radio and a variety of other broadcast forums. Prior to joining the staff of Global Trade Watch, Sforza served as senior researcher at the Preamble Center for Public Policy. Sforza received a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in philosophy and social policy, both from George Washington University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Public Citizen Group (October 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582310017
• ISBN-13: 978-1582310015
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WTO - the real antichrist!, August 19, 2000

By 

Michael (Fresno, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whose Trade Organization?: Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy (Paperback)

A MUST read for all citizens and government employees! We have been sold down the river. All of our health, safety, environmental, labor, and manufacturing policies have been compromised by the dictates of the WTO. The only ones benefitting from this organization are multi-national and U.S. mega-corporations and rich countries. They can challenge any and all policies of any country in which they feel there is trade discrimination. Wallach and Sforza do a fantastic job of documenting numerous instances.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful data on WTO, slim analysis, June 10, 2002

By 

Christopher D. Wright "redtwister" (Baltimore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whose Trade Organization?: Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy (Paperback)

Contrary to the typical rantings of Neo-cons and neo-liberals, this book is not a book by and for Socialists (or, more accurately, anti-capitalists of any sort). This book does not have any kind of critique of capitalism. Only the sort of ideologues who lust after Latin American dictatorships like Pinochet's, which meant 'small government' (no social welfare type apparatus) and a strong state (death squads, political executions, smashing of dissent), will find this book threatening.

The book does have a lot of useful information on how the WTO runs and how it is focussed on the needs of corporations, most of which reside in the most developed capitalist countries, and which seek a set of global rules that allows them greater freedom of movement to invest and exploit (wow, I already hear the neo-cons whining because I used the 'E' word.) It also shows that the balance between global capital and the nation state has shifted, though this does not have the dire anti-democratic consequences claimed herein. That would be the liberal assumption that the nation state 'represents the people' and that that is a good thing.

At the same time as some people claim that the WTO is killing the nation state, this book makes it clear that the WTO is a body run by and through nation states. Corporations cannot directly intervene, but must have their concerns addressed through nation state mediators.

The book also does a good job of exposing the total lack of accountability of the WTO, as well as one of its unique features: unlike previous UN organizations, the WTO has disciplinary powers which it can use to enforce its rulings, something no 'humanitarian' part of the UN ever had.

The abscence of any kind of class analysis hinders this book theoretically and means that some possibly interesting questions do not get answered.

This book is better read alongside some other texts, which, even with their failings, fill in some of blanks here, such as Negri and Hardt's Empire.

Overall, a pretty useful and utilitarian overview of the WTO.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking on WTO info? This is the one!, October 25, 2002

By 

WichacpiHoskila (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Whose Trade Organization?: Corporate Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy (Paperback)

Just what are all those protesters so upset about, anyway? This book will tell you. It's a quick, accurate, well-composed book examining the effects of the WTO on developing countries' poverty, health care, natural resources, and human rights.

This review doesn't need to be lengthy: Look, there are lots of books on the WTO. If you want the accurate summary to understand this issue simply, this is it.