World trade organization essays

World trade organization essays One should probably start an argument on the issue of the Group of 21 proposals with a statement from Oxfam International's 2002 report Rigged Rules and Double Standards: "the problem is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favor of the rich.' Starting from this, I aim to prove not only that WTO's role is almost exclusively in favor of the rich, but also that the important players in the WTO system do not abide by the very rules that they have created. The recent Cancun round of negotiations within the WTO, regarding especially agricultural subsidies, showed that finally the developing countries starting with giants such as India and Brazil, preponderantly agricultural countries with significant contribution to world trade, backed up by China, could finally make a common point and a stand still against the European Union and the United Stated. The strange and somewhat revolting point of discussion is that, while boasting liberalization and free trade, the EU and the United States spent an approximated $300 billion in subsidies, almost all of them going to agriculture. Isn't a subsidy a way to ignore the free trade boasted as the main program by the WTO' Of course, you do not use taxes to raise imported goods prices, but you follow a reverse pattern and use subsidies to lower national goods prices and make them more competitive on the foreign market. The agricultural problem is a first concern for the G-21 demands and it should be noted that these demands are not necessarily for lowering custom taxes or creating a privileged position for the developing countries in the group, but for respecting the conclusions of former WTO negotiations. If trade is to be liberalized, how can this be done in an environment of high subsidies from developed countries' How can the G-...

Describe an issue in The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, and explain how the author presents it.

Describe an issue in The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, and explain how the author presents it. The book, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a short story book. Each individual story is told from a different viewpoint of each of the seven characters: three migrant Chinese mothers, and their four American-Chinese daughters.The book has a mother-daughterly, familial theme. More specifically, it focuses on the issue of cultural clash between the Americanised daughters and their still-traditional, Chinese mothers.Amy Tan does this by presenting the conflicting views and stories of both sides, providing the reader (and, ultimately, the characters) with an understanding of the mentalities of both mother and daughter - and why each one is the way she is.Although The Joy Luck Club is a short story book, the individual stories relate to each other and correlate to express this issue. The stories are grouped into four sections: (generally) two devoted to the mothers and two to the daughters. Each section has a title of its own and is 'introduced' by a brief excerpt which carries a theme par allel to the ones explored by the stories that follow.Waiting on the porch on Mother's Day 2007Amy Tan presents this issue of cross-cultural mother-daughter relationships by examining the various aspects of the issue - for instance, the similarity in the natures of mother and daughter, communication breakdowns, the effect external aspects have on the relationship, and what happened in the lives of the mothers that moulded their personalities and ideals.Each of the four sections of the book is dedicated to one of these aspects and together, they explore this grand issue and tell a larger tale of its own.The book sets off with the untimely death of Jing-mei Woo's mother, who founded the Joy Luck Club and died with unfinished businesses - the knowledge that her two daughters (whom she'd abandoned as infants while escaping from China) are...

Oil Business - Advantages and Disadvantages Essay

Oil Business - Advantages and Disadvantages - Essay Example Typically, the entire oil business is divided into three main parts which are the upstream, midstream, and downstream sector. The upstream sector is concerned with the location and extraction of oil from various parts of the world while the midstream is concerned with the processing of extracted oil to marketable products as well as the transportation of such products. Both the upstream and the midstream sectors are concentrated only in certain parts of the world such as Russia or the Middle East while the distribution industry which is part of the downstream sector is spread throughout the world (Gary & Handwerk, 1994). Therefore, any changes in the global market of oil can either favorable or adversely affect the distribution industry significantly. The unpredictability of the global market can also lead to many changes inside of the distribution industry, and the rising cost of fuel has only put a strain on the already straining oil distribution industry.One of the industryâ€℠¢s strengths is that it is among the first in the line of industries affected by oil prices and therefore it can suffer minimally as compared to other industries when it comes to changes in oil prices. Because it is the first hit by the changes, it is also the first that can adapt and the first to be able to quickly overcome the changes to try to lessen losses based on the change in oil prices. Where other industries are affected conversely through the chain of order and sometimes have little room to do anything about the price of oil, the gas distribution is hit first and therefore can adapt most quickly with the other industries adapting around it.When less oil is mined and processed in the international market, independent distributors would have to compete to obtain what is available. This sort of competition can drive smaller distributors out of business. And for those smaller distributors, this can cause problems, and may at first look like an outright negative effect of gas p rices, and a negative effect of the whole of the industry. But this negative opportunity for the smaller firms soon opens up a larger one for the bigger firms, which can then flex their economic muscle a little bit. It is this versatility and adaptability that helps the oil distribution industry to survive at hard times when most other industries would fold upon themselves and crumble.