FREE TRADE & GLOBALIZATION

The world is becoming more globalized, there is no doubt about that. While that sounds promising, the current form of globalization, neoliberalism, free trade and open markets are coming under much criticism. The interests of powerful nations and corporations are shaping the terms of world trade. In democratic countries, they are shaping and affecting the ability of elected leaders to make decisions in the interests of their people. Elsewhere they are promoting narrow political discourse and even supporting dictatorships and the “stability” that it brings for their interests. Many argue this is to the detriment of most people in the world, while increasingly fewer people in proportion are prospering.

Global trading that allows all nations to prosper and develop fairly and equitably is probably what most people would like to see. The World Trade Organization, (WTO), is the primary international body to help promote free trade, by drawing up the rules of international trade. It has been criticized for being very opaque and not allowing enough public participation, while being very welcoming to large corporations which urge poor countries to engage in free trade while often still maintaining trade barriers in their own countries. Europeans and Americans today are kicking down barriers to sales in Asia, Latin American and Africa while barricading their own markets against the Third World’s agriculture.