Inside US Trade -
The secretariat of the World Trade Organization this month rejected as inaccurate and biased a draft United Nations report which charged that the WTO excludes developing countries from its decision-making processes and that it serves the interests of multinational corporations. The report's conclusions are "highly inconsistent" with those of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the multilateral trading system, according to an Aug. 18 letter to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.
It quotes Annan as saying that "the open, rule-based trading system has generated an extraordinary surge in prosperity and dramatic reductions in poverty."
The letter was sent by WTO Deputy Director-General Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza in the absence of Director General Mike Moore to express "deep concern" about the U.N. report's language, methodology and conclusions. It asks that the WTO's position be communicated to U.N. officials responsible for preparation and oversight of the report.
The draft report, which still has to be submitted to the Commission on Human Rights for its consideration, criticized the negative impact of globalization on human rights, particularly among developing nations and called the WTO's free trade rules "grossly unfair and even prejudiced" (Inside U.S. Trade, Aug. 18, p. 15).
The WTO letter criticizes the basis for these accusations, saying the report's authors relied primarily on opinions of other authors instead of seeking to analyze the WTO directly. The authors did not rely on new factual research for its conclusions and did not meet with WTO officials in preparing the report.
"It would seem to me that a close analysis of primary sources is methodologically crucial to any study, if it is to be factually accurate and objective," the letter says. " It is equally disturbing to find that the report drew sweeping conclusions on the WTO and its agreements virtually unsubstantiated by any empirical evidence," the letter says.
It invites the authors to meet informally with WTO senior officials to help them understand the procedural and substantive content of the WTO and the way it functions. "I believe that there are significant misunderstandings which could be easily clarified, and the Director-General has asked me to assure you that he is always available to discuss these matters in the context of our inter-agency cooperation."
The letter also rebuts charges in the draft report that WTO decisions are only "ostensibly" based on consensus and are actually the result of power dynamics favoring rich nations.
"If anything, the central principles of the WTO, decision-making by consensus, most-favored nation (MFN) and non-discrimination, actually help to reduce inequalities in bargaining power. The WTO guarantees that rules, not force or power, guide the conduct of international trade. If developing countries are keen to join the WTO, it is because they know that its rules protect them from unilateral measure," the letter says.
The letter acknowledges the difficulties developing countries face in finding adequate resources to participate in WTO activities, but notes this problem is also common to other international organizations. It also highlights the efforts the WTO is making in conjunction the U.N. and other international organization to address the problem.
Mendoza also cites the participation of developing countries in crafting the WTO trade rules against the charge that these are unfair to anyone but industrialized nations.
"It is difficult to understand why the more that 130 current WTO members, as well as the some 30 developing countries and countries in transition that are actively in the process of acceding to the WTO would be willing to be bound by 'unfair' rules," the letter says.:
