Is the U.S. is using it's power in the W.T.O. to block countries like Russia, Syria, Iran, Libya, Sudan, North Korea ... from getting into the trade organization that already contains the entire planet except the countries the U.S. don't like !!!
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday accused the United States of "blocking" Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.
He said "Had it not been for the extremely cautious U.S. policy on Russia's accession to the WTO -- or, to be frank, had it not been for blocking on the part of the U.S. -- we would have been there a long time ago," Medvedev said in the televised remarks, "and no one would now be asking questions about some supposed controversy (between Medvedev and Putin)."
Russia can’t become a member until it agrees on terms of entry with the United States.
The WTO, requires applicants to hammer out bilateral pre-membership terms with current members before the organization as a whole can vote to accept or reject an applicant.
The United States is the sole remaining large WTO member that hasn’t signed a bilateral pre-admission deal with Russia.
Those the U.S. Hate can't join the W.T.O :If you have a look at this map, you'll notice all those that the U.S. don't like are not able to get in the W.T.O, and are still in negotiation and have been probably for a long time.
Those who are not in the W.T.O:Afghanistan
Algeria
Andorra
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Belarus
Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Comoros
Equatorial Guinea
Ethiopia
Iran
Iraq
Kazakhstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Lebanese Republic
Liberia, Republic of
Libya
Montenegro
Russian Federation
Samoa
Sao Tomé and Principe
Serbia
Seychelles
Sudan
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Yemen
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1947. The World Trade Organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalising trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants'
The WTO has 153 members, representing more than 95% of total world trade
Critics have characterized the decision making in the WTO as complicated, ineffective, unrepresentative and non-inclusive, because the vast majority of developing countries have very little real say in the WTO system.
Although decisions at the WTO are by consensus and the overwhelming majority of its members are developing countries, the decisions of this body have been invariably against the interests of the South. Unlike the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, there is no weighted voting in the WTO, which works on the principle of one country one vote.
But what really happens is that the developed country group together and put pressure on the opposing countries one by one, a small group of opposing countries remain at last and for fear of political cost they often let it go in favor of the developed countries.
In addition to the one by one hunting technique many (specially the smaller countries) fear that the financial aid they are getting from the U.S., the E.U and other developed countries would be cut if they join those who oppose the developed countries decisions.
for a more detailed explanation on the process of decision making in the W.T.O please see this
pageSubmitted by Axel from Belgium
