The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization which oversees a large number of agreements that its members use. These agreements are basically the rules of trade. The WTO is a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades (GATT). The WTO headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland. The Director General is Pascal Lamy. There are 148 members in the organization; all WTO members are required to grant one another most favored nation’s status. Trade concessions granted by one member to another country must be granted to all members. The WTO has two basic functions, the first is negotiations between members and the second is to resolve disputes between members. The last member to join the WTO was Cambodia in October 2004. In 1996, Iran applied to join the WTO; the United States blocked the application because of possible terrorism. In March the U.S. said it would start to negotiate with Iran to join the WTO as part of a nuclear related deal. Russia wanted to joint GATT in 1993 but as of yet it is still not a member.

The WTO has enemies like most organizations; some people feel that certain practices between the nation’s businesses take advantage of people and the environment. In the 1930s, Franklin Roosevelt started the Trade Agreements Program. It was basically put together for international negotiations. The problem is that the governments have worked mostly on give and take. Several years ago, there was the question of the U.S. ban on dolphin/unsafe tuna, was really a trade ban in disguise. The WTO can not force countries to open themselves to more foreign trade investment and a lot of countries participate in agreements because they are convinced that it will benefit their own interests. I personally think environmental and human rights are linked to trade. For after all, businesses are made up of people and their services. Many workers that do business for the global market are very badly paid, and compensated. A lot of the companies in the United States go to other countries and set up their businesses known as outsourcing to do the same.

Companies all over the world abuse the environment, forests are cut down, in many nations without much concern about the environment and many nations are doing damage without the help of multinational corporations. The Amazon Rainforest began as a part of a Brazilian strategy for development of their own country. Once upon a time, you could go to different countries to see different landscapes, but with economic globalization, you can see familiar high rise office buildings and a McDonalds on any corner. I think human rights are already linked to international business. I work so many hours to buy a product I feel I must have. How long did a person have to work in a sweat shop for X amount of dollars for me to buy this product? How much profit does the company that sells the product make? In this situation, the sweat shop worker is making far less than is adequate to sustain a good standard of living. This hasn’t stopped most businesses including those in the United States from still practicing these unethical and illegal methods.