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| | ECUADOR, THE WTO, AND THE BIG BANANA |
 | | Also on the losing end of the dispute is the already tarnished credibility of the WTO which, despite rhetoric to the contrary, does not provide a level playing field for its members (even if such a thing were desirable) or an unbiased method of dispute resolution. |
 | | The first is that the trade in bananas, or anything else for that matter, is controlled by the big players, in particular the US and the EU, and that in these countries, particularly the US, money and influence controls much of the political decision-making. |
 | | On the one hand, it ignores the fact that even though in many Third World countries the state has become so small as to be almost totally irrelevant, there still exist many large and powerful states in the world and they generally act in their own interests. |
| www.focusweb.org /publications/2001/Equador_WTO_big_banana.html (2170 words) |
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