Holybeast's Killing Illuminati

Okay, I slightly have a question arisen on my mind : why did we join WTO ? What for ?
Fyi, WTO stands for World Trade Organization, an international organization under the United Nations. Many countries join WTO for the sake of "liberating trade across the globe". Indonesia is one of those countries. Many says (by saying 'many', I mean the developed countries) that joining WTO gives so much good opportunities and protections. I can say that, when a country joins WTO, it has to be ready to open its territory for trader from another country. Consequently, it has to be ready for competition.

The problem is, if there is a country which is not ready yet, but because of political and diplomatic force from other countries it has to make itself ready no matter what consequences that will occur in the future. Ready or not, you have to follow the giant. Hey, it's WTO, man ! the spreader of free trade idealism ! you will be pushed by other countries if you still decline to join. Imagine your country is still an outsider (re: not joining WTO), no country wants to trade with you (well, maybe not 'there is none at all' but with almost whole nations have the WTO membership, you know what it feels like). If your country are blessed with good natural resources and human resources maybe it will survive, but still, like international law says, a nation always needs a nation.

Back to the problem, a country which is not ready yet will panting to keep up with the competition. Yes the membership will give positive effect regarding the quality of the products, but for the country which is VERY not ready, joining WTO will gradually kill your country. The underrated domestic products will compete with other products from other country, and before you know it, the market is overflowed with imported products. Because of free trade campaign, you have to lower the import tax, even there will be free tax in this year or next year (i forget the exact year). Last thing we know is domestic business will be weaker than before and we can not protect it because of WTO rules and principals (even safeguard rules don't help).

I am not against WTO. My mini thesis topic was actually about WTO, specifically the TBT Agreement and I can say that joining WTO will give you many advantages, IF your country is ready enough to face the consequences. It means that your country must have a strong bargain position on economy, politic and diplomatic. If not, just kill yourself when you know your country joins WTO, especially if you are a businessman or a trader (just kidding btw) :D