Case Study The World Trade Organization: The Dark Side of Globalization?   Instructions: Enter your answers into the boxes below. If you'd like a print-out of your responses, click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page, and you will be taken to a printer-friendly page. If you have been instructed to submit your exercise online, enter both your and your instructor's name and e-mail address, then click the Email button at the bottom of the page. Your answers will be e-mailed immediately.   The Business of the World Is … :: Master of Their Own Domain :: Patsies or Players?   Master of Their Own Domain The scenario described in the previous section raises another troubling aspect of the World Trade Organization. Beyond the environmental issues involved in the question of petroleum standards, the situation presents a more basic question. If the United States has determined that a certain course of action is appropriate, why should the World Trade Organization be able to call that action into question? If any nation seeks to pursue a particular policy, should an international organization have a veto over that policy? Some contend that the World Trade Organization is antidemocratic in its nature. The people of the various nations throughout the world select leaders to represent them in their national governments. These governments are responsive to the will of the people, and through this relationship something resembling democracy is achieved. This is the way that government should function. However, the WTO throws the proverbial monkey wrench into this arrangement. The World Trade Organization is empowered to penalize governments for following the wishes of their people. Such a proposition is ludicrous at a point at which so much of the world is told to reach for the nirvana of democracy. Others respond that the World Trade Organization is the epitome of democratic government. The vast majority of trading nations are included in its ranks and a majority consensus is required to enact its rules. The World Trade Organization is not composed of a tiny elite forcing its will on a reluctant world. The standards employed by the WTO in resolving trade disputes are agreed upon by majority of its member nations. All nations have a say in determining what the World Trade Organization will do. Any nation, especially one as influential in the WTO as the United States of America, is engaging in disingenuous posturing when it argues that the World Trade Organization is usurping its ability to govern its own people. These nations ARE the World Trade Organization. Is the World Trade Organization different from the United Nations in its attempts to regulate the conduct of individual nations? Should policy be the exclusive decision of a nation’s government? Are there any situations in which the international community should be able to dictate the proper course of action to a nation? Do you find it acceptable that the World Trade Organization would penalize the United States for a policy that it chose to pursue? What would your reaction be if you learned that the United States announced it would act in defiance of the World Trade Organization’s decision? What would your reaction be if you were a national leader in Brazil or Venezuela? What would happen if all of the nations who were members of the World Trade Organization announced their intention to only follow the rulings of the WTO that were in their national interest? Would you see this as a negative development? Is a nation acting to protect the stability of its own economy necessarily a bad thing?     Student Name:* Student Email:*   Professor Name:*   Professor Email:*         *required