I consider myself to be as antiglobalist possible.
The United Nations (UN) is a titanic joke – and a titanic waste of time, money, and prime New York real estate.
After the Berlin Wall was toppled, North Atlantic Treaty Organization should have been closed. That was exactly thirty-two years ago.
The World Health Organization (WHO) – a subsidiary of the UN – is an unmitigated disaster. We’ll get to that later.
But, I do think the World Trade Organization is a worldwide entity that could be useful. Because if we are going to engage in global trade – and we are – we need a global arbiter of things global trade.
I say “could” serve a useful purpose – because the WTO once actually did. But times and things have changed – and the WTO hasn’t. It’s shocking to me that a giant global multi-government bureaucracy is not adapting rapidly as the rest of the world.
WTO may be an asset again. If it modernizes the right ways – and not the wrong ways. Unfortunately, it’s being dragged, cajoled, and bribed in all the wrong ones.
This must change if it is to preserve any relevance.
The WTO’s Fast Track to Irrelevance:
“China and others try to exploit the pact, while Western nations burden it with irrelevant goals.”
We are aware of the damage that Communist China has done to international entities.
The Fight Against China’s Bribe Machine
The Chinese characteristics of Bribing the Whole World:
“A most unsubtle way to pursue world domination.”
How WHO Became China’s Coronavirus Accomplice:
“Most critically, Beijing succeeded from the start in steering the World Health Organization (WHO), which both receives funding from China and is dependent on the regime of the Communist Party on many levels.”
Chinese billionaire convict in United Nations Bribery Case
China’s Outfoxing and Outgunned: China’s Route to the U.S. through a U.N. Agency
US Claims China Bribes UN News Outlet for Positive Stories
To resurrect its relevancy, the WTO must put a stop to this….
The Battle for the World Trade Organization is On
“China has used its economic power to bully, bribe, corrupt, and steal its way up the global economic supply chain, with only limited resistance from the WTO.”
Meanwhile, the planet’s Western nations – rather than in unified fashion having the WTO do something about China’s mass bribery and thuggery – are instead having the WTO do lots of somethings about very stupid, divisive, and irrelevant things:
“European and American political leaders have tried to burden the WTO with new missions such as climate change…These efforts often divide economic constituencies within democracies.…”
Here’s a thought: You’re a trade organization. Let’s say you are a trade organization.
As we mentioned, the world has changed – and the WTO hasn’t:
“(O)ver the past decade or more, the WTO system has lost its leadership role in expanding a liberal, rules-based global order. It is partially due to institutional sclerosis as well as poor adaptation to global economic and geographic conditions.
“The WTO doesn’t effectively cover such challenges as industrial and agricultural subsidies, forced technology transfer, and rules for newer digital and services economies, including data privacy, cross-border data flows and internet commerce.”
No one is better than China at “forced technology transfer.” But “industrial and agricultural subsidies” have become a worldwide, multi-country phenomenon. The WTO did almost nothing about this.
Of the three bad things governments do to warp trade – tariffs, import limits, and subsidies – subsidies are far and away the worst. And the US has been far-and-away subsidies’ biggest victim.
Importing Government Subsidies: The Worst of Fake ‘Free Trade’:
“(O)ther countries’ subsidies – are stealth weapons killing us from within. They are an innumerable armada of Trojan Horses – which we have been willingly bringing inside our gates….
“Importing government subsidies – undercuts our domestic producers of…everything that is subsidized elsewhere.
“So millions of domestic producers – have been thusly driven either overseas…or into extinction. Taking with them tens of millions of domestic jobs.”
All over the WTO, a global subsidy regime has reached astonishing heights. It is a problem that the WTO has almost done nothing to address.
Global Trade Alert:
“Subsidies are a major source of controversy in the world trading system. Since 2010, the number of trade disputes relating to subsidy has increased dramatically, as well as investigations into subsidies for imports.
“The EU, Japan, and the US have taken exception to a Chinese development model that they view as riddled with ‘non-market practices,’ of which subsidies are a leading example.
“China bristles at having its subsidies singled out, arguing that it is not alone. Yet, at present there is no work programme at the WTO on the trade-related aspects of subsidies in general; no serious attempts to find common ground are underway.”
China is certain to have made the situation orders of magnitude worse.
How Chinese Subsidies Have Changed the World
But China ain’t wrong – they are nowhere close to alone in the subsides business.
Foreign Subsidies – International Trade Administration
The Domestic Welfare Impacts of Foreign Strategic Trade Policy
Foreign Subsidies White Paper – European Commission
International Trade Subsidies
Crop Subsidies In Foreign Countries
Foreign Sugar Subsidies Rise, Prices Plummet
The WTO can fix this. This is what we wrote about in our first article, July 2013.
It’s Time for ‘Zero for Zero’ Subsidies:
“Where we approach the planet and say ‘You get rid of your trade barriers, and we’ll get rid of ours.’ In other words, we have zero protectionism – and so does everyone else.”
One would think this would be the WTO’s business model – now and always.
You’re a global trade entity – charged with keeping things global trade fair. That means removing tariffs and import limits – and ending subsidies.
If the WTO successfully implements this operational model – and sheds the Communist China bribes and Western nation climate idiocy?
It will bring back relevance and utility.
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