Free Trade or Fair Trade?

A discussion paper written by Mariama Williams and presented by DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era) to the WTO> The paper finds one of its strongest points in the following statement made by Williams:

"Trade is an important tool in the process of economic development of Southern economies. For least developed countries, trade is also an important tool for promoting development that is anchored in ensuring food security and rural livelihoods.

Trade rules are therfore important but cannot take precedence over human rights and evnvironmental sustainability. Therefor trade policies and associated rules need to be democratically determined through consultative processes with women’s and men’s organisations, other civil society formations, and interagency processes at the local and national level.

Trade decision-making must also be accountable, inclusive and transparent at the international level. This is the hallmark of good governance."

The paper also identifies nine myths/realities of WTO.
Below, we look at three of them.

MYTH 1
Trade liberalisation brings many benefits at very little or not cost

Reality: Trade liberalisation may impose burdens on women as workers in export processing zones or in commercial agriculture. Thus far, trade liberalisation has tended to rely on female labour in those sectors. Increasingly, research points to rampant ex ploitation and abuse of women and violations of their rights in terms of sexual harassment, infringement of their reproductive freedom, and unsafe and hazardous working condition. Reductions in tariffs, etc., may result in the reduction of social services, health clinics and rural infrastructure developments that will strongly affect women’s unpaid labour. The environment may also pay a heavy cost for trade liberalisation.

MYTH 2
Trade liberalisation will result in increased growth.

Reality:There is no automatic correlation between trade liberalisation and growth. Countries that rapidly liberalised their imports did not necessarily grow faster than those that liberalised more gradually.

MYTH 3
WTO dispute settlement is accessible to all members

Reality: Many developing countries, e specially the least developed countries (LDCs), are generally unable to utilise it due to lack of financial resource sna dlegal expertise. Who are the experts on the dispute panel?