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Hahnel is professor of economics at American University and author of Panic Rules! Everything You Need to Know About the Global Economy and The ABCs of Political Economy. He said today: "The first problem is that while the WTO claims to be only about promoting mutually beneficial trade, it is more about compelling Third World countries to agree to enforce international copyrights like drug patents and to promise not to treat international investors in their economies any differently than domestic producers -- or else be excluded from world trade altogether. The second problem is the WTO has been much more successful at forcing Third World countries to lower their tariffs than forcing First World countries to lower their tariffs. The third problem is that even if all tariffs and subsidies were eliminated in all countries, contrary to popular opinion this would not create a level playing field since free trade at free market prices systematically distributes the lion's share of the global efficiency gain from specialization and trade to the more advanced economies, thereby widening the gap between the haves and the havenots."