File spoon-archives/bhaskar.archive/bhaskar_2004/bhaskar.0401, message 63


Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 12:52:50 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Ismail=20Lagardien?= <ilagardien-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: BHA: Global Governance & Reproduction of Inequality


Dick
 
You wrote:

It seems to me that one of the major vulnerabilities of attributing 
governing powers to the WTO is the argument that it is effectively 
controlled by the U.S., or by a coalition of the most powerful nations.  You 
will probably have to show that it is not an instrument of dominance 
used by the "center" against the "periphery."

 
My Response...
 
I guess it's not that simple... The way I hope to describe that is to show that 
 
a) The US (and to a lesser extent, Britain) created the post-war order. Here this order is a Liberal International Economic Order (Modelski's definition) - WITHOUT the participation of the 15 poorest countries (my sample)
 
b) over the almost 50 years that the GATT was cobbled together... the US and Britain were represented on ALL committees, working groups etc etc... my sample, were represented on about five percent (something that rediculous). At one important Round of Negotiations, in 1982 (I think) Japan sent 59 delegates (mainly economists and technocrats) and all African member-countries sent about 23 (mainly politicians, diplomats and a few civil servants).
 
This list goes on and on... the point i try to make is that the 15 poorest countries simply never had the skills, nor the actual bodies to participate in negotiations. 
 
In the contemporary period this historic inequality (NOW HERE I CAN DO WITH SOME HELP FROM THIS LIST) is reproduced in the day-to-day work of the WTO. Howard's earlier point resonates well with this, but i need some more help...
 
For instance. For every 7 representatives the US available for the daily grind in the WTO -  Mali, or Niger, or Sierra Leone would have about 1.5. Two things for consideration. 
 
1. there is an average of 46 meetings a week in the WTO.
2. If your trade to GDP ratio is higher than 15 percent it is imperative that you get a good deal in trade negotiations. the average for Sub-Saharan African countries is 35 percent
 
Note on the data: I am sitting in a computer lab on campus - the data is as accurate as I can recall. 
 
Regards
 
Ismail


There May be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there never must be a time when we fail to protest." Elie Wiesel (1928- ) Writer, Nobel Laureate

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