Southern nations were marginalized in WTO decisions that shaped their economies

Evidence

In fact, one of the underreported events at the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle was the rebellion of many smaller and southern nations. ‘We came here with high expectations from our countries in the Caribbean,’ said Clement Rohee, Guyana’s minister of foreign affairs. ‘We are very much disappointed over the fact that coming from small economies we ended up with a situation where we are totally marginalized in a process that has been virtually hijacked by the more wealthy developed countries.’ Global Exchange (2000b: 2) has argued that ‘developing countries have relatively little power within the institution, which through the programs and policies they decide to finance, have tremendous impact throughout local economies and societies’. These nations are suffering not only growing impoverishment through the inequitable policies of these institutions, but also decreasing control over global decisions regarding their own economies, including their environments and natural resources. These criticisms, while marginalized in 1999, were central to the breakdown of WTO negotiations in Cancun 2003. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 312

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete case of procedural justice failure at the global-institution level — carries the procedural-justice thread of the polyad into international economic governance. — connects to: Neocolonialism controls southern economies through money and trade rules rather than armies — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1412; South nations and publics are denied meaningful participation in WTO, IMF, World Bank decisions — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 310; The WTO’s grand bargain systematically favored the Global North. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 199
• QUESTION: The Cancun 2003 breakdown as the payoff of 1999 marginalization is asserted; worth checking how procedural exclusion mapped onto the actual negotiation collapse.

Broader Connections

• The WTO’s grand bargain systematically favored the Global North. #expands (0.95) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 199