Is the WTO Really Failing

Some say that the World Trade Organization or WTO is failing? Is it really failing for everyone? It certainly is not failing for China, India and other exporting countries with lots of cheap labor. We see many nations with extremely high growth rates up near 10% per year and that is significant indeed.

Some nations are complaining because their countries are growing too fast and cannot keep up with the infrastructure. Other countries are complaining because they are watching the wealth of their country slip away to other nations and do not see the money coming back to them in the flow of purchases for their exports. Is the WTO really failing?

One of the problems with globalization is the inherent in a characteristic of the human species for protectionism and to hold on what they have achieved or collected. This goes back hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years in the evolution history of the species. When one nation sells goods very cheaply and exploits their environment, population and resources to do this they will invariably do future damage to their nation for monetary inflows in the present.

Examples might be Bangladesh cutting down all the trees or China with many regional manufacturing areas polluting water supplies that no one can drink. A level playing field in world trade is important, but we cannot expect Third World nations to impose all the over regulations which first world nations impose on themselves due to political and corporate protectionism within the country.

In the United States of America no one can deny that our industries and corporations are over regulated. Most of this regulation has nothing to do with protecting the American people or American worker, but rather one corporation yielding its political might through lobbying to enforce regulations to prevent another competing corporation from winning in what should be a level playing field and free-market. To expect China or any other country moving up to their place amongst all nations to over regulate itself to artificially raise the cost of goods that it produces is simply silly.

Further, if countries wish to use protectionism type tariffs to prevent goods that could be produced at a lower price and more efficient in another country from coming into their country to prevent monetary outflows, then they are indeed lowering the standard of living for their own people and promoting inefficiency. That is the same thing we do in the United States of America with our own never ending over regulation signifying nothing. Please consider this in 2006.