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The WTO after ten years
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| From: | KrishR | 4/22/2005 9:58 am |
| To: | ALL |
(1 of 4) | | | | 17.1 | |
Dear All
At the outset we all will be agreeing that the efforts of WTO are yielding positive results to the developing countries. We should also agree that the economic problems of respective countries are to be tackled by themselves rather than expecting WTO to be the solution to end such woes. I feel that WTO should also align with the Academic Insitituions, especially in developing countries to further its agenda. It's more so because the political climate in each country which is more interested in proving that their ideologies are more fruitful for the development may defeat the long term purpose of free trade. Post your comments.
KrishR |
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| | | | | 17.2 in reply to 17.1 | |
Hullo Krish
I agree with you that countries are best allowed to tackle their economic problems for themselves. Most countries would do this much better if they were not forced by the international institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO) to dedicate their cropland and their labour force to producing goods for other countries instead of their own populations. The same applies to their financial capacity: many poor countries spend their savings repaying foreign debts.
Although when buying modern equipment and tools they have to pay prices set by the industrialised producers, when selling their own cocoa and coffee and other commodities, they are competing with other commodity producing countries to bid down prices so that the rich countries can pick bargains.
Perhaps some of the other ideologies from the academic institutions might be better than the single-minded free trade one that is now driving international policy.
Regards
Geoff Edwards |
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| | | | | 17.3 in reply to 17.2 | |
Dear Edward
I do agree with you on the reservations about the international institutions. At the same time, we should also see that all the member countries are looking at the opportunities that are created by these institutions as a quick way to economic prosperity. That's where I suggested that they should remember that a country's problem, trade or otherwise, can not be solved by any other institution outside that country. If this bottomline is well understood then these intenational bodies can be used as an excellent tool for economic prosperity.
Rgds.
Rangarajan |
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| | | | | 17.4 in reply to 17.3 | |
Dear Rangarajan
Yes, I agree that a country must develop its own solutions and its own institutions. Many decades of development experience since World War II should have taught us that there is no "quick way" for prosperity. So long as the WTO, World Bank and IMF keep pushing countries to adopt single-minded solutions based on a single inadequate theory of economics, their solutions will continue to fail. The WTO has jumped over the evidence and has concluded that trade is the "quick way" to prosperity. It is simply untrue.
If we try to identify the conditions for sustained well-being of a population, very necessary among them are universal education and stable institutions, especially a politically neutral, competent public service. (Even the World Bank's research comes to this conclusion). If a country has these, then it can work out solutions for itself. It will even devise a trade policy that works for itself.
Regards
Geoff Edwards |
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