Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem

Jordan joins the WTO

America is endeavouring to turn the world into a ‘free market’ and to open the markets of other countries to foreign investment. This led her to relinquish her role in running her economy by privatising the public sector and removing all types of customs barriers and obstacles standing in the face of international trade, including either the direct trade protection policy, such as the ban imposed on the import of certain commodities in order to protect similar local commodities, or the indirect protection, such as the imposition of high tariffs on certain imports, or the policies of subsidising certain local commodities, or imposing a ceiling on the size of commercial trading. In order to achieve this aim America and the wealthy capitalist states endeavoured to establish a host of international trade agreements and economic blocs.

They also used the G7 as a tool aimed at drafting the international economic, monetary and commercial resolutions, and at monitoring the execution of such resolutions, as a prelude to turning them into international laws. It is well known that the aim of America and the other capitalist states is to open up the markets of all the countries of the world to their superior commodities and investments by internationalising market policies. In return, they only want the raw materials of the other states, not their end-products, so that the developing states remain under their commercial and economic dominion and in order to prevent them from building their economies on solid and firm ground, which may lead to them ridding themselves of the economic dependence on the industrial states.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) had, from 1947 until 1995, been the effective authority in regulating international trade. However, America deemed the agreement insufficient, because it was only confined to regulating commercial relations between various states, with no platform to interfere in how these states run their economic policies and their domestic trade. Hence, she resorted to holding a series of negotiations known as "The Uruguay Round" which stretched between 1986 and 1994, and at the end of which a host of resolutions had been adopted and led to the establishment of the World Trade Organisation in 1995, in an announcement that had been made in Morocco. Consequently, the GATT and all the new agreements related to the trading of goods, services, investments, Intellectual Property Rights, as well as the customs and excise agreements, specifications, measurements, imports, protective measures against saturation and subsidies etc., all of these became attached to the WTO. Hence, the WTO will have the upper hand in organising international investments and in facilitating the freedom of foreign investment by placing it on an equal footing with local investment, while stressing the need to prevent any commercial measure that may impede the freedom of trade and also stressing the need to implement the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and cancelling or reducing the barriers imposed on the exchange of goods and services, which include insurance, tourism, banking and transport, and organising the investigation and the inspection of international trade as well as the control of prices and quality.

Therefore, this organisation is indeed the main tool that America uses to globalise the economy in general and international trade in particular. America is working through this organisation towards transforming the world into a village whereby goods and services as well as capital would move easily and without any state imposing any restrictions. This means the demolition of economic barriers between the various states in order to serve the multinationals. Since it is the organisation that enacts the laws and determines any infringement of these laws, the member states or those who wish to join the organisation must surrender their sovereignty and the administration of their economy and their trade to the multinationals and the leading superpower who almost totally control world trade. Hence, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank constitute a dominant triangle and a threat to the economies of all the countries of the world.
 
Jordan submitted an application to join the GATT in 1993. This application was then transferred to the WTO in 1995. Negotiations with Jordan lasted until the end of this year in order to guarantee Jordan’s submission to the conditions of membership, the most important of which was her commitment to reduce customs duties and her adherence to the Intellectual Property Rights agreement as well as her endorsement of the legislation related to facilitating foreign investment. The announcement of Jordan’s entry into the WTO was supposed to have been made during the organisation’s recent conference held in Seattle, but the conference ended in disaster. The apparent reasons behind the failure of the conference were reflected in the differences between the United States on the one hand and Japan and the European Union on the other hand, especially with regard to the European states’ persistence in subsidising the farmers, and also in the demonstrations and protests that marred the conference, to the point where several human chains were formed to prevent the delegations from entering the conference hall. These demonstrations were described as the largest since those organised in protest against the Vietnam War. The demonstrations were attended by several organisations, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace; however, they had been instigated by the American trade unions who feared world openness for the affluent American workers, which would allow for the exploitation of cheap labour, including child labour. Hence, their protest was against the potential competition of the developing countries’ workforce. On the other hand, the developing countries expressed their strong opposition to the free rein given to the American companies to invade the world without any restrictions and it seems that America aims to exploit this opposition from the developing countries in order to give them a greater nominal role and implicate them in a wider participation in the organisation’s negotiations, thus imposing further restrictions upon them. The French newspaper Le Monde stated that, "There is a trend aimed at luring the developing countries into such types of negotiations, but on a larger scale." Regardless of what occurred in Seattle, the threat posed by this organisation over all the countries of the world has been exposed and its bias towards the major companies, which are only concerned with profit, has become evident. The result was the failure of the conference and no agreement was reached on a timetable nor on the final declaration. Resolutions were either suspended or deferred, including the entry of Jordan into the organisation.

The agreement of partnership with Europe and the economic benefits of peace, as well as the IMF programme have all been propagated. The advantages and positive aspects of joining the WTO have also been propagated; despite the fact that countries such as France and Japan suffer from the extreme power of this organisation and America’s control over it, certain individuals have the nerve to claim that Jordan’s entry into the organisation will place her on an equal footing with another country such as America. Newspapers reported the following statement made by one of the Egyptian negotiators in Seattle: "They treated us like animals. They kept us out in the cold and did not inform us of anything." It is also propagated that Jordan is now able to export to America without having to pay any customs duties, despite the fact that this is dependent on bringing in the strategic partner and that it only serves foreign investments, not local ones. Hence, king Abdullah used this point to promote the advantages of foreign investment in Jordan during his recent visit to several Asian countries.

The fact that, as of now, trade resolutions are no longer the result of local market require, but rather tresult of the submission to the conditions of the organisation, and that the laws issued by the organisation will place Jordan and other countries under the spectre of sanctions, as is the case with America’s policy towards the violations of human rights or towards supporting terrorism, all this is sufficient to substantiate the extent of the threat that lies behind joining the organisation. In reality, it is noted that the industrial sector is beginning to collapse, especially in pharmaceuticals, for the benefit of the companies with Intellectual Property Rights. This means that Jordan will turn into a field for foreign investments, including Jewish companies, and into a consumer market for American and other influential countries’ products. As for the sales tax, it will continue to increase and expand its scope until it engulfs everything from people’s hard-earned incomes.

As for the state’s excuse for joining the organisation and mortgaging herself to its economic and trade resolutions, it was outlined through her claim that the disadvantages of joining, no matter how great they were, will not reach the scale of the disadvantages of not joining, and that Jordan cannot afford to remain outside. This excuse is worse than the crime itself, for such a state has no right to find excuses for her submission and dependence on the powerful and dominant states and for joining their devastating schemes, since the rulers of Jordan, from one generation to another, have always insisted on keeping their meagre entity, that lacks any constituents of a state, severed from its root; they have chosen for it to continue existing with this size and this weakness and without any form of political will. Then they harangue the people every day with the slogans of patriotic unity, that mean nothing but keeping this entity severed from Syria, Iraq, Saudi, Palestine and the other parts of the Islamic World. Who gave the rulers of Jordan or Saudi or Iran or some ruler in Qatar or Djibouti, whose inhabitants do not exceed half a million, the right to accept and submit and even defend the division of the Islamic lands into feudatories that are neither capable of protecting themselves nor of feeding themselves? Then they expect us to accept the excuse of being weak and incapable of mounting a challenge. They expect the Muslims to believe them when they claim to be working for the interests of their peoples and towards improving the economic situations and achieving prosperity. How do they expect anyone to believe them in this when we witness the economically and technologically advanced European countries endeavouring to achieve an integrated economic union amongst themselves in order to challenge the ghoul of the American economy, and yet our rulers persist in maintaining us as weakened little groups.

The root and the field of the problem are the American hegemony over the world, not the entry or the exit from the organisation, and the crime of the Muslims’ rulers is not solely confined to diverting the issues from its root and its field, it rather stretches to their desperate efforts in concentrating the humiliating conditions in the Islamic lands, that enable the Kuffar to defeat, subjugate and humiliate them, and spread their hegemony over them and pillage their riches.

As for the solution, it is not a figment of the imagination. It is rather the current reality that is similar to a phantasm. The Arabophone part of the Islamic World comes after China, India and the United States in terms of inhabitants and it contains huge resources, so just imagine the whole of the Islamic World that constitutes one single Ummah who possesses an Aqeedah with which she is far superior to the rest of the world.

The solution is not a figment of the imagination. Either these parts strengthen themselves and return to their origin, or throw themselves into the embrace of the major powers for them to do with them whatever they wish. The solution is for the Ummah to perceive that the Kuffar will not leave her until they destroy her completely and to perceive that she is being fought in her quality as an Islamic Ummah. She must also perceive that Islam forbids her from remaining divided and obliges her to join these parts together under the wing of the one Khilafah State who will gather the dispersed Muslims all over the world, thus she will become strong and mighty and she will solve her economic problems. She will even impose her viewpoint about international trade relations. We will then stop hearing from those who claim that we are incapable of facing the Jews, that we have no choice but to join the WTO, that we must comply with the IMF programme and that it is impossible to rid ourselves of the American hegemony.

O Allah! Help us to establish the Khilafah and make Your Deen triumphant on Earth.

Hizb ut-Tahrir
(Wilaya Committee of Jordan)

10 Ramadhan 1420
17 December 1999

www.hizbuttahrir.org