Some staggering statistics from the Anti-WTO site www.gatt.org:
Studies such as those from which the following facts are culled demonstrate that current trade liberalisation rules and policies have led to increased poverty and inequality, and have eroded democratic principles, with a disporportionately large negative effect on the poorest countries.
The poorest 49 countries make up 10% of the world?s population, but account for only 0.4% of world trade. This disparity has been growing.
70% of world trade is controlled by large multinational corporations; this percentage has steadily increased over the past twenty years.
The richest fifth have 80% of the world?s income and the poorest fifth have 1%; this gap has doubled between 1960 and 2000. (Human Development Report, UNDP 1999)
In almost all countries that have undertaken rapid trade liberalisation, wage inequality has increased?20-30% fall in wages in some Latin American countries. (UNCTAD 1997)
Even in the First World, the gap between upper executive and worker salaries has never bigger. The gap is enormously huger, and is defended in theoretical terms.
Top 100 transnational corporations increased assets 697% between 1980 and 1995. At the same time employment in these corporations went down.
Nearly every single environmental or public health law challenged at the WTO has been ruled illegal. While it is likely that many should legitimately have been ruled illegal as they were, the fact that so few have gotten through has led us to question the validity of our processes.
A matter of perspective helps. On September 11, 3000 people died in the towers as a result of terrorism. On the same day, 24,000 people died of hunger, 6,020 children were killed by diarrhoea, and 2,700 children were killed by measles on that day.