WTO: "A level playing field"

This cartoon is quite funny, as a commentary on the rules of global trade. It is often said that the rules should be fair to all countries, but in reality, this is not the case. The playing field is clearly giving advantages to the western countries. The rest, or the so-called developing world (although I don't like that term) are not given a fair chance to compete.

The WTO has a set of agreements that need to be changed. A common call from NGOs is "Shrink or Sink". The WTO got too powerful in the Uruguay Round negotiations in the 1980s, and unless the rules are changed, the WTO will collapse as countries start to negotiate bilateral or regional free trade agreements instead. So, what is the solution?

Quote of the day: Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz has come to Hong Kong to collect an honorary doctorate and to sniff the air around the World Trade Organization conference. He agrees the talks have hit a sandbank, but he does not draw the conclusion this is a bad thing. "No agreement would be better than a bad agreement," he says, according to The Standard.

(Cartoon source: The Hong Kong Standard)