When World War II was over, much of Europe was in ruins. The US took advantage of the opportunity and its companies took control of the economies of Europe and Japan. The beginning was the Marshall Plan dedicated to the reconstruction of a devastated Europe. Then the Americans, in search of raw materials and new markets, moved into other countries as well.
As a result, the US economy attained huge trade surpluses and US business became dominant all over the world. In addition, the US policy adopted then, hindered the advancement of underdeveloped countries and obstructed their development.
The radical changes to trade, industry and dominance led to reorganizing world trade with the US giving Europe a marginal role. Congress, at that point, did not agree so the General Agreement for Tariff and Trade (GATT) convention took place in 1947 in Geneva. For their own reasons, the Western world and Japan, headed by the US, worked to channel their goods, services, inventions, styles and beliefs to other parts of the world under the pretext of free trade. And that was only to replace the old concept which meant trade under the flag of the former colonial powers.
At that time, underdeveloped countries were trapped and beleived that they have been freed from their old colonial masters. But the real objective was to ruin morals and social structures, promote economic backwardness and strengthen the international grip over weak partners due to the inequality of opportunities in terms of both resources and means. The GATT, in pursuing its policy, called for eight conferences and forums, the last one in Marrakech in 1994. The World Trade Organization was then born and recognized worldwide. The dream became a reality after 47 years and WTO became the regulator of world trade and settled trade conflicts, including agriculture, the textiles industry and clothing, services and foreign investments, electronics, communications and patents ownership.
The question is: is it fair that the powerful should bend the weaker to their will? For example, the US worked hard to dominate the world — and Israel is content to dominate the Arab World. In order to learn more about the WTO, let’s talk about the result of the Marrakech conference.
The WTO become a legal entity recognized worldwide as a body supervising a total of 28 agreements, protocols and resolutions in addition to trade conflicts reconciliation, organizing international negotiations dedicated to freeing world trade, expansion of trade exchange including communications, electronics, services covering banks, insurance, trade marks and patents ownership. It is clear that equality only exists among industrial nations and others in the capitalist world which are non-Islamic in belief and way of living. These countries, however, enjoy the positive aspects of the capital bloc and negatives are directed to underdeveloped countries.
In addition, weaker nations faced tough negotiations specially after the fall of communism and the rise of capitalism. Hence, underdeveloped countries are required to face and tackle other problems while negotiations are under way prior to the execution of any agreements. The WTO doesn’t include oil, gas, petrochemical industry and manpower in its agenda.
The Arab share of world trade is only one percent without oil and gas; moreover, it is required to pay the carbon tax so subsidy to agricultural products will be reduced and the prices of goods from the Arab world will be increased by more than $1 billion annually. It is therefore imperative that we demand a right in regards to this specific matter and leave the results to the future.
As for services and patents ownership and due to advanced Western technology, underdeveloped countries will incur enormous costs. This also has to be tackled in order to lengthen the period of application and also to determine alternatives and to find ways to strengthen our position in order to meet these tasks and challenges.
In short, reckoning negative aspects makes no difference at all. What matters is that we must accept whatever is in conformity with our beliefs and religion and maintain international prices for our natural resources. It is also necessary that we agree to a fair schedule that requires us to carry out our obligations but within our capacities and capabilities. Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, during his visit to Sweden, made it clear when he said, “We realize that in joining the WTO, we are committed to fulfill many obligations and make sacrifices but we ask others to recognize our right to make joining (the WTO) justified and preserve our economic interests.”
