c) s.aaronson, kenan institute, not to be used or attributed without [email protected]...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: C) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without Permission-saaronson@kenan.org Making the Public the WTOs Trade Partner A more honest](https://reader034.vdocuments.site/reader034/viewer/2022051613/551503e85503465e608b45e4/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Making the Public the WTO’s Trade Partner
A more honest dialogue about the WTO
Getting People to Listen
Hearing their concerns
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Some thoughts about our dysfunctional dialogue about trade
and trade agreementsNot a problem of procedural
transparency, but a problem of transparency of purpose.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
What I’ve learned running in my WTO tee shirt
• Wherever I run in my WTO tee shirt, it stimulates a discussion about many topics:
• child labor• A world run by multinational
corporations.• Trade with nations that don’t
protect human rights or the environment.
• The WTO is an undemocratic opaque global bureaucracy
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Why is the WTO so misunderstood?
• WTO and GATT designed to be removed from national politics.
• Yet dependent on national policymakers to explain what WTO is and what it does.
• National policymakers make economic (efficiency) arguments for trade, say little about equity and governance.
• Institutions can not long endure without public support
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
The most misunderstood international institution
• bulk of public is apathetic.
• concerned interest groups perceive WTO as undemocratic, unfair, and opaque.
• WTO now does a relatively good job of outreach to NGO’s
• Lousy job of outreach to citizens around the world.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
National Policymakers bear responsibility Supply side of policy(1)
• Have not adequately communicated what trade agreements do
• Have not communicated difference between benefits of trade and costs/benefits of trade agreements
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Policymakers bear responsibility (2)
• Secrecy of negotiators during trade talks increases public concern.
• Yet policymakers must negotiate behind closed doors.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Policymakers Bear Responsibility US as a case study (3)
• Trade agreements are America’s main tool to govern globalization, which is frightening to many Americans.
• To address fears, policymakers must promote a different discussion about trade agreements
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Policymakers Bear Responsibility US as a case study (4)
• Trade policies and agreements increasingly affect the achievement of other important policy goals, from protecting public health to ensuring stable foreign relations with nations such as Pakistan.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Policymakers Bear Responsibility US as a case study (5)
• Ironically, at the same time, US uses trade policy to achieve too many policy goals: e.g.
• ensuring cheap drugs for elderly
• to sustain sugar farmers and steel producers,
• and to punish rogue nations.
This foments confusion about trade and undermines support for trade agreements.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Why does US use trade policy to do too much?
• Off budget• Can use leverage of
huge US market to prod changes in trading partners.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Problem: How to talk about the WTO so people will listen
• Difficult to get public to focus on trade policy when people can barely juggle work and family life.
• Most schools don’t teach economics or civics
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Getting people to listen
• Be honest about how trade relates to peoples daily lives. Discuss-
• How citizens benefit/lose from trade?
• What trade agreements do?
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
How does trade affect people in their daily lives
• Every hour of every day, people see, smell taste, touch, and hear traded goods and services.
• Trade in these goods goods and services affect individuals differently as consumers, producers, taxpayers, friends of the earth and citizens.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Knowledge is power (to use a cliché)
• One can simultaneously be a winner or loser from trade as a consumer, producer, taxpayer, etc..
• Nonetheless, by understanding how trade affects them, people are empowered.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Be honest about what trade agreements such as the WTO do
• Trade agreements regulate how trading entities may trade and how and when nations may protect.
• They are one of many tools policymakers use to regulate global markets.
• Citizens need regulations because global markets, like domestic markets, fail.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Be honest about costs and benefits of trade agreements
• Like domestic regulations, trade agreements are often imperfect and incomplete and come with costs to producers/consumers.
• Trade negotiations are an opportunity to discuss trade and tinker with trade agreements.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Language is inexact
• WTO proponents talk about “freeing trade” but there is no such thing as free trade. No government allows free trade. Trade agreements regulate markets to create freer trade.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Trade agreement critics are also
• inexact…but deserve fuller responses…do trade agreements undermine human rights, the environment, national morees?
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Gap between rhetoric and reality undermines WTO
• But people have a right to know. • At the same time, citizens should do more
to understand trade agreements and to influence national and international trade policymakers.
• Policy in the global village should be a two way street.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Conclusion• WTO is only 57 years
old…Policymakers are still learning how to make it work effectively, efficiently, equitably…
• To succeed over time, WTO must learn to work with citizens as well as concerned NGOs, business leaders, and national policymakers.
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c) S.Aaronson, Kenan Institute, Not to be Used or Attributed Without [email protected]
Trade and Human Rights Partnership Project
• Helping policymakers and the public gain a better understanding of how human rights and trade policies intersect.