On Friday we held a mock WTO Dispute Resolution over whether or not the EU is valid in banning imported beef containing hormones. In the "WTO Committee" in class determined that in order to uphold the goals of the WTO, Free Trade and Trade Liberalization, that it was only fair to ban hormone injected beef if that ban was spread to ALL countries, not just the United States and Canada. That way, the ban did not create unfair trading practices, yet upheld the health concerns of all citizens.
We then switched sides and argued the opposite perspective - a tough task! The goal of this activity was to understand that the decisions made by the WTO are made to uphold the goals of the WTO and that decisions, therefore, are sometimes made at the expense of other values. This is one of the main criticisms of the WTO - decisions made to uphold Free Trade are not always compatible with values such as environmental sustainability and human rights.
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