WTO Serves Its Own Interests, Not U.S. Interests
The American economy is struggling, as are many economies around the world. The effects are rippling through our job market and our stock markets, but our economy is vulnerable to outside forces. Despite the need to protect our own interests, the head of the World Trade Organization is urging countries like the U.S. to forgo protectionist measures in order to preserve the very system that is failing us.
“This is not the time for go-it-alone measures,” WTO Chief Pascal Lamy said. “This is the time to strengthen and preserve the global trading system so that it keeps performing this vital function in the future.”
The problem is that Mr. Lamy is speaking for the interest of the WTO, not for the interest of individual countries, and certainly he is not speaking in the best interest of the United States.
The current system of free trade that he speaks of preserving has been devastating for the U.S. economy, and has sent millions of jobs out of the country while helping to increase the wealth disparity between the rich and poor. In the United States, the rich are getting richer, while many individuals that would have once been middle class citizens are now living on subsistence wages. Those jobs that would have supported a middle class existence are now performed in countries like China for considerably less money, while the profits accrue to the wealthy elite.
It makes sense that Mr. Lamy wants to perpetuate this system, as those that profit from it established his position. The WTO does not exist to help the less fortunate in society; it exists to help the multinational corporations that influence our elections and policy through campaign contributions and promises of lucrative positions in the private sector.
Contrary to what Mr. Lamy may say, this is the time for the U.S. to look out for its own interests. We currently have a projected $600 billion trade deficit for 2011, and each $1 billion of that trade deficit is costing us approximately 14,000 jobs. We have tried free trade, and it has gotten us in the position we’re in. There is no reason to “strengthen and preserve the global trading system” when it gives us rampant unemployment, underemployment and a massive national debt.
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