This powerful global organization merits close scrutiny.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has emerged as a powerful supranational organization that wields extraordinary power over nations, the environment, and health. It has been charged with being at once undemocratic, nontransparent, and unaccountable. These are strong accusations, and need to be explored in depth. This section will track the history of free trade, the recent meeting in Cancun, and discuss the legitimacy of the WTO itself.

The WTO defines itself as “the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.”

Absent from this description is how the WTO is controlled and by whom, and for whose benefit. The WTO has been engaged in a series of meetings over a number of years aimed at trade liberalization. Many NGOs and citizens from around the world see this liberalization of trade undermining health, the environment, and even democracy itself. The latest round of WTO talks has just concluded at Cancun, Mexico with representatives of many poor countries walking out in protest