WHY THE WTO SUCKS

By Bill Weinberg

In the first case heard before WTO in 1995, Venezuela successfully challenged provisions of the US Clean Air Act barring the import of gasoline which releases more contaminants than the average from domestic refineries. Rather than face $150 million in annual trade sanctions, President Clinton ordered the EPA to rewrite the Clean Air Act. The new provisions were identical to those the oil industry had long demanded.

In the next cases, in 1998, ecology fared no better. First, the WTO upheld complaints by India, Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan against a US law banning import of shrimp caught in nets that entangle endangered sea turtles. The decision slipped through a loophole in GATT's Article XX, which officially exempts laws designed to protect the environment from challenge: the WTO appellate panel ruled there was an exemption to the exemption, for laws which are deemed "arbitrary and discriminatory." Because the decision left open the possibility of upholding environmental laws, the Clinton Administration actually hailed the striking down of a US environmental law as a victory. The distinction will mean nothing to the sea turtles.

Next, the WTO upheld a US complaint against a European Union ban on import of beef treated with biotech growth hormones. Then-WTO Secretary-General Renato Ruggiero stated openly that environmental standards are "doomed to fail and could only damage the global trading system."

The next conceived step in global corporate governance was the Multilateral Agreements on Investment (MAI), which would give corporations themselves, rather than governments, "standing" to challenge laws and other perceived threats to their investments anywhere in the world. State, local and municipal governments would be bound to comply. National or local governments could be held liable for failing to crush strikes or boycotts.

Last year, the MAI was scuttled following a global activist campaign coordinated over the Internet. However, some of the MAI's worst provisions were proposed to be incorporated into GATT/ WTO at the Millenial Round in Seattle. The protests effectively scuttled this agenda. These provisions may be introduced when the WTO meets next month (January) to try again in Geneva.