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Disputes
are not resolved in an open court of law. Instead, cases
are decided by a panel of three trade bureaucrats. Their
decisions are binding and override local or national laws.
Richard
Cobden, a member of the Anti-Corn Law League and one of
the original 'free trade' campaigners, believed that free
trade could lead to better international relations as
people across the world had more communication with one
another.
That
has not happened. Only certain things have been 'globalised'
in today's free trade project.
Wealth
has not been globalised. It has been concentrated in fewer
and fewer hands. Meanwhile the number of people living
on under $1 a day is expected to increase from the current
1.2 billion to 1.9 billion in 2015.
Borders
have not been globalised. There are massive restrictions
on people moving around the world, despite war or difficult
conditions driving them out of their homes.
Finance,
however, has been globalised. Money can flow in and out
of countries, leaving speculators to determine exchange
rates.
And,
inside countries, public assets are being handed over
to corporations, labour and environmental rights have
been weakened; taxes on corporations have been cut; and
people are only getting pensions, education or healthcare
if they have the money to pay for it.
The
original supporters of "Manchester economics"
might remind us that free trade was a project, not an
inevitability.
They
might even recognise that it's high time we got rid of
it.
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