Paved with Good Intentions

Background to the GATT Uruguay Round and WTO

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Whatever the benign intentions of those who initiated the WTO and GATT, it has been apparent for many years that the multilateral trading system provides little benefit to countries of the South: which, as this book argues, is not surprising, since global trade and finance are mere tools in the service of the new military and economic empire and the alliance between Britain and the US. It argues that the WTO is primarily a negotiating forum, which perpetuates the domination of the North over the South; managed, rather than genuinely free trade of benefit to investors' profits and flexible protection - of the markets of the industrialised North, against those of the developing South.

This publication of the Southern and Eastern African Trade, Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) is the first in a series of books documenting and elaborating challenges to the processes of globalisation and its assumptions from a southern perspective, whilst recognising the need for alternative modes of development. The series serves as part of a wider effort to strengthen the role of the southern and eastern African countries in the WTO and the multilateral trading system more widely, and as a constituent of a wider south-south network.

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