When the rules of the GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, were re-written, and the World Trade Organization formally established in 1995, the world was promised peace, prosperity and an end to hunger. However the WTO, with now 164 members and representing over 98% of global trade, did not follow through on its commitments. Today, in 2022, there is no peace, the gap between rich and poor is larger than ever, and the environment is devastated by mining, logging, fishing and industrial agriculture. What role has global trade played in all this?
For example at the June, 2022, WTO conference in Geneva WTO members were mandated, under Sustainable Development Goals, to reduce subsidies to factory fishing. These floating fish processing fleets have caused a collapse of fish stocks worldwide. The WTO acknowledged the problem but refused to cut the most important subsidy. China, the EU and US are allowed to guarantee cheap fuel to the fishing fleets. In contrast poor WTO member countries asked for special treatment to continue fishing for sustenance just to keep alive. That was rejected.
Food insecurity and the dominance of large corporation in the WTO were predicted by Vandana Shiva 30 years ago. She also anticipated the use of intellectual property rights and genetic engineering to commodify and control nature.
Vandana Shiva is often referred to as “Mahatma Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the anti-GMO movement. She lives on the farm in India that she inherited from her mother and has written more than 20 books. Her most recent is “Terra Viva”, published in Australia in July 2022.
Shiva was also one of the founding board members of the International Forum on Globalization, the IFG. I worked for the IFG as radio producer from 1992 until 1999 and recorded the members at the working meetings and public events. Thanks also to film maker Elizabeth Garsonnin who shared the recordings from her film: The Secret Side of Free Trade.
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