In the ten years of its existence, WTO panels composed of corporate attorneys have ruled that: the US law protecting sea turtles was a barrier to "free trade"; that US clean air standards and laws protecting dolphins are too; that the European Union law banning hormone-treated beef is illegal. According to the WTO, our democratically elected public officials no longer have the rights to protect the environment and public health.

Unlike United Nations treaties, the International Labor Organization conventions, or multilateral environmental agreements, WTO rules can be enforced through sanctions. This gives the WTO more power than any other international body. The WTO's authority even eclipses national governments.

In November 1999, 50,000 people went to Seattle to challenge this corporate agenda and to demand a more democratic, socially just and environmentally sustainable global economy. The protests succeeded in shutting down the trade talks and derailing the expansion of the WTO.

The fourth ministerial took place in 2001 in Qatar, a country where free-speech rights are effectively nonexistent. Behind closed doors and out of the civil-society and media spotlight, hard pressure was applied. Empty promises were made that this round of negotiations would focus on development and the needs of the poorest countries—an implicit acknowledgment of the unfairness of the current system. The US and the EU thus succeeded in launching the so-called Doha Development Round, a misnomer of epic proportions.

In 2003 the process moved to Cancún, Mexico, where the rich countries sought to expand the scope of the WTO. But a remarkable new alliance of developing countries argued that the unfair global agricultural system had to be cleaned up first, before new issues could come onto the table. The tragic suicide of Korean farmer Lee Kyung Hae brought the collective rage of the outside civil-society mobilization inside the closed gates of the negotiating halls. Most important, an alliance of the poorest countries stood their ground. The talks fell apart on the last day.

Then, in the summer of 2004, the most powerful countries cobbled together a minimal consensus to get the negotiations back on track by giving false assurances that agriculture would be fairly reformed.

The WTO held its next ministerial in 2005, in Hong Kong, China. Though mired in controversy, negotiations continued on key issues including agriculture, services, and market access for industrial goods and natural resources.