Call me Ishmael. Inspired by a fellow Montanan's recent diary, "It’s the Contractors, Stupid- A Plan to Get Out of Iraq," I went rooting for truffles on the internet today and discovered that Iraq is nearing a critical point for a process many of us and almost all ordinary Iraqis know almost nothing about: The Bearing Point plan for Iraq is predicated on WTO membership. Despite Iraq's not meeting the basic requirements for WTO membership, the application has been fast-tracked since Paul Bremer first put his boots on Saddam's old desk. Although Iran has applied for and been denied observer status 15 times, Iraq, occupied and already in the throes of civil war, was granted observer status right on Bremer's schedule, in February of 2004 and is now in the final stage of securing full WTO membership.
Is the WTO accession process is part of a duplicitous, Machiavellian plan by the occupying powers and their globalist corporate backers? Can it be stopped before the Iraqis surrender economic sovereignty in perpetuity? Find out more and what you can do after the jump.
Iraqanomics 101: The WTO Commuter Lane
How to become a member of the WTO
Article XII of the WTO Agreement states that accession to the WTO will be "on terms to be agreed" between the acceding government and the WTO. Accession to the WTO is essentially a process of negotiation — quite different from the process of accession to other international entities, like the IMF, which is largely an automatic process..
Who can apply
*"Any state or customs territory having full autonomy in the conduct of its trade policies is eligible to accede to the WTO on terms agreed between it and WTO Members"*. (Article XII of the WTO Agreement).
http://www.wto.org/...
After Paul Bremer removed nationalist opposition to the globalization of Iraq and effectively launched the Iraq civil war with CPA orders 1 and 2, he methodically implemented a series of CPA orders which were designed, probably by Bearing Point, to strip Iraq of the power to ever control its own economy and resources. These CPA orders granted foreign corporations immunity from lawsuits, reduced corporate taxes from 40 to a flat 15 percent, "made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to plant saved seeds," and provided that where Iraq law conflicted with international agreements that the "more favorable terms" would apply. CPA Order 12, amended by Order 54, removed all tariffs with the exception of a 5% reconstruction levy on imported goods, clearing the way for unrestricted access to Iraq's energy resources by foreign energy companies (hey, we didn't invade for the dates). CPA Order 12, aka "Trade Liberalization Policy" also set a deadline for Iraq's membership in the WTO.
The US it seems, has been able to push Iraq’s accession so successfully that the members of the WTO and the secretariat itself had overlooked the fact that Iraq does not even pass the first requirement of accession. Under WTO rules, countries can only apply if they have full autonomy. "Any state or customs territory having full autonomy in the conduct of its trade policies is eligible to accede to the WTO on terms agreed between it and WTO Members". (Article XII of the WTO Agreement).
At the time of approval of observer status, which then WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi declared as a first step to WTO membership,4 it hardly had autonomy, it was still being run by Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
http://www.globalpolicy.org/...
Full WTO membership, coupled with CPA Order 39, which states that *"Where an international agreement to which Iraq is a party provides for more favorable terms with respect to foreign investors undertaking investment activities in Iraq, the more favorable terms under the international agreement shall apply."* makes it impossible for Iraq to exercise control over its own economy or resources. The interim constitution of Iraq, written by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, essentially cast Bremer's 100 orders in stone, requiring a 2/3 to 3/4 vote of any future assembly to change them.
Cheney/Haliburton Eyes "The Prize"
As a US analyst explains, a key pillar of the Bush Administration strategy is to consolidate control over global energy services and the principal way to achieve that is through the services negotiations under the WTO. 16 The WTO is still the best arena because of its legally binding agreements. The US is a few steps closer to its goal of control once Iraq becomes a member of the WTO. As US Vice President Richard Cheney states, "While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost is still where the prize ultimately lies." 17
http://www.globalpolicy.org/...
According to globalpolicy.org, Iraq has now advanced to the third and final stage of the WTO accession process and is likely to swiftly secure full WTO membership without the input or knowledge of its citizens, the vast majority of which are primarily occupied with staying alive. When the WTO process is complete, multinational companies will enjoy unfettered access to Iraq's national resources, while ordinary Iraqis will continue to enjoy the following:
Nearly 5.6 millions Iraqis are living below the poverty line, according to our most recent studies. At least 40 percent of this number is living in absolute and desperate deteriorated conditions," said Sinan Youssef, a senior official in the strategy department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, adding that this level of poverty is a 35 percent increase over the level before 2003...
"When people find that they cannot support their family with food and other supplies, they search desperately for any kind of job. Insurgents use this weakness. They use these guys for terrorist activities in exchange for the promise of good money," Youssef said.
Local officials and NGOs put the unemployment rate countrywide to be more than 60 percent. In particularly troubled areas such as Anbar Governorate, this rate could be much higher.
Compounding the unemployment problem is the fact that the price of basic necessities in Iraq has skyrocketed over the past year. A report by NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq (NCCI) suggests a 70 percent rate of inflation from July 2005 to July 2006.
http://www.alertnet.org/...
Is this what exporting peace and democracy is really about? Is the debate over surges providing cover for the globalists to quietly implement the final and most important stage of their plan for Iraq? Is the surge required to provide the illusion of stability necessary to finalize the WTO process? Hint: don't ask the WTO.
How About a Little Transparency?
If you're curious, as I am, as to exactly when the secret arranged marriage between Iraq and the WTO might be consummated, you'll have better luck randomly checking passing pigeons for secret messages strapped to their birdlegs than asking the WTO. Below a list of milestones on the WTO page on Iraq's accession to the WTO, there's a link which reads "All unrestricted documents on accession of Iraq." Here's what you get back when you click the damn thing:
Your search did not return any results for one of the following reasons:
either
The documents that you have attempted to retrieve are not yet available to the public. For further information, please see the FAQ & Help
or
No documents match your search criteria. Please modify your search criteria. If your query still produces no result and ONLY if you are certain that documents exist in the database for your query, please contact the administrator
Role of the State Department
The current administration hasn't exactly been playing the role of disinterested observer in the WTO accession process.
UNCLASSIFIED
[5.] Help Iraq Strengthen Its Economy – WTO Accession
WTO Accession Process:
• US Agency for International Development (USAID) is assisting the
Government of Iraq (GOI) with trade policy and World Trade Organization
(WTO) accession. Currently, USAID advisors are coordinating with 20 Iraqi
ministries to formulate answers to questions raised by WTO members on the
Memorandum on Foreign Trade Regime (MFTR, which Iraq sent to the WTO
in May 2005), a key step in the accession process.
• In coordination with the Inter-Ministerial Tariff Steering Committee, USAID is
supporting Iraqi officials’ efforts to meet WTO standards. Iraqi officials are
drawing from USAID support in drafting WTO accession-related documents
covering tariffs, subsidies, services, and technical barriers to trade.
• Previously, USAID helped establish a trade policy unit in the Ministry of Trade
to support the Government of Iraq’s WTO accession efforts, including the
provision of training across the GOI ministries on key WTO accession chapters
of market access, customs, intellectual property, and standards. Since the
beginning of 2005, over 200 GOI officials and 500 private sector
representatives have received technical training and assistance on WTO
accession and other trade-related issues.
Weekly Status Report on Iraq, June 14, 2006
Raising Questions
Iraq’s accession may well be underway but it is not yet complete. The legitimacy of the whole process should be questioned as in the first place Iraqis do not have autonomy over their country, let alone trade policies. The accession process began before the country even had elections. And even with the new Iraqi government in place, its legitimacy and autonomy are still under question because the country is still under occupation by the US. Observer status was granted to Iraq while the country was still under the CPA. The Iraqi minister which pursued the accession process was handpicked by the US government. The country effectively was still under occupation when it took its first step towards WTO membership.
The US, or any occupying force, has no right to alter and implement new policies and legislation. As stated by many legal analysts, in altering Iraq’s economic policies, the US violated international law. Article 43 of the Hague Regulations of 1907 states "The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country." This means that the US had no right to restructure Iraq and turn it into a WTO-compliant economy. Even the UK Attorney General, Lord Peter Goldsmith advised Prime Mister Tony Blair, "The imposition of major structural economic reforms would not be authorized under international law." 23
Iraq’s accession must be stopped. Only a legitimate and truly sovereign Iraqi government should be able to determine its future.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/...
The official narrative is that we invaded Iraq to save the world from the corrosive ambitions of a sociopathic tyrant bent on world domination. That's ironic isn't it?
And don't even get me started on Afghanistan.
What makes me mad is that the whole revolution is inspired and financed by Americans who have wildcat investments down here and want to make them good by putting in a Government which will declare a monopoly in their favor. The whole business is rotten to the core and I am ashamed to think that a Republican administration is, if anything, assisting the revolution.
--Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, writing about Nicaragua in 1910
See also:
http://www.wto.org/...
http://www.state.gov/...
http://www.export.gov/...
http://www.pbs.org/...
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/...