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**DECEMBER 18, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

Mercy-Killing the WTO

****

I almost fell out of my chair reading

**New York Times** editorial writer Farah Stockman pronouncing the World
Trade Organization all but dead
-and
good riddance. Wow!

I quote:

When the W.T.O. was born in the 1990s, faith in free markets was at a
record high ... But the power of the W.T.O. became a problem pretty
quickly ... The W.T.O. aimed to tackle a whole host of things that had
little to do with traditional trade. That's partly because of
corporations, which lobbied their governments behind closed doors to
rewrite the rules of trade to their advantage.

Investment banks pushed for financial deregulation around the world ...
Pharmaceutical companies pushed to extend their patents, complicating
the efforts in developing countries to get access to generic, affordable
drugs
.
Big agriculture companies pushed to lift bans on genetically modified
food.

OMG! I've written stuff like this, but I've been a total outlier.
You should read the whole piece.

Stockman goes on to point out that the WTO gives China's protectionism
a free pass, in the name of a bizarre view of free trade; that Trump did
some useful damage in helping to demolish the WTO; and she cautions Joe
Biden not to try to resurrect a global agency that was always a stooge
for corporate interests. Double wow!

The WTO, in short, has been the enforcer of global neoliberalism and the
scourge of a regulated economy that serves regular people. The lopsided
results demolished jobs and economic security, discredited the
Democratic Party, and helped bring us Trump.

For decades, criticism of the ruling ideology and its institutions got
you editorial scoldings almost everywhere, as a flat-earth
protectionist, a wicked nativist, and worse. Now even

**The New York Times** recognizes the reality.

In the heyday of the WTO and the ideology that it carried out, a small
but resolute band of truth-tellers exposed what was really going on. A
special shout-out to Lori Wallach, Clyde Prestowitz, Deborah James, Mike
Wessel, James Mann, Pat Mulloy, Dani Rodrik, Kevin Gallagher, and Tom
Kruse, among others; a tip of the hat to Trump's only good appointee,
Bob Lighthizer; and

**bon courage** to the new U.S. trade rep, Katherine Tai.

There is a Hebrew prayer called the Shehechiyanu, praising God for
allowing us to reach this day. Amen.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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