Trading Away the Future
This week, the 159 nations of the WTO are meeting in Bali to try to push through the long-stalled Doha Round of trade talks aimed at establishing a global trade agreement. Simultaneously, efforts are moving quickly ahead on two ‘mega-regional’ trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – involving some 12 countries of the Pacific Rim – and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – involving the EU and US. These agreements amount to massive corporate coups, undermining democracy and establishing highly protectionist policies and rules for the benefit of transnational corporations. These ’21st-century trade agreements’ – as Barack Obama has referred to them – are re-shaping the world order, setting the rules and standards for all future such agreements, and are attempts by the Western powers to continue to dominate the global economy.
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