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https://theconversation.com/the-world-trade-organization-is-on-life-support-will-trumps-new-rules-finish-it-off-273216>
"The United States has now withdrawn from 66 international organisations,
conventions and treaties, illegally invaded Venezuela, and promoted an “America
First” agenda in its new
National Security Strategy.
This all signals the collapse of a global system that has operated for the past
60 years. The old world order – driven by hyper-globalisation and US hegemonic
power – is in its death throes, but a new era is yet to be born.
We now face a deepening ideological, strategic and military conflict over what
shape it will take. The global “free trade” regime, overseen by the World Trade
Organization (WTO), is one such battleground.
Largely designed to serve its strategic and corporate interests, the US now
sees the WTO as a liability because of the economic ascendancy of China and a
domestic populist backlash against globalisation and free trade.
But US antipathy to the current multilateral trade regime is not exclusive to
the Trump administration. America has long resisted binding itself to the trade
rules it demands other countries obey.
Congress reserved the power to review US membership when it authorised joining
the WTO in 1994. Since then, both Republican and Democrat administrations have
undermined its operation by:
* calling for an end to the Doha Round of negotiations launched in 2001
* breaking the WTO dispute mechanism by defying rulings that go against it, and
refusing to appoint judges to the WTO Appellate Body so it is now moribund
(effectively allowing rules to be breached)
* and starving the WTO’s budget during the latest US review of international
organisation memberships.
To date, Trump has not withdrawn the US from the WTO. But his administration
seeks instead to reinvent it in a form it believes will restore US geostrategic
and economic ascendancy."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
