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I agree with you that the #1 priority for 3rd world countries is to change their corrupt governments. I still don't understand how you would take free trade and lack of subsidies (the hallmark of capitalism) and turn them into socialism. It's subsidies, high taxes, and other forms of government actions that are the hallmark of socialism (think about the French economy).

Just because the WTO (not usually a favorite of us Conservatives) is on the side of low subsidies doesn't mean that subsidies are good (I'll give Wolfowitz the benefit of the doubt, especially based on his performance on this issue).

From the article it says that in return for lower agricultural subsidies, the US wants the third world countries to open up their manufacturing sector. This is what free trade is supposed to accomplish: each country ends up doing things based on their comparative advantage. Subsidies distort those advantages, thereby making trade extensively less efficient and worse for everybody.

I still don't understand how you would take free trade and lack of subsidies (the hallmark of capitalism) and turn them into socialism.

Just as an FYI, the United States was founded on the principle of free enterprise, not capitalism. Capitalism had not even found its way into the English language until far after the American Revolution and somewhat after the civil war. The Marxists have somehow brainwashed many Americans (I say somehow, but I mean through the main stream media,and leftist educational institutions) that the US is a capitalist system.

The main point of posting this article, is to shine a light on the fabrication by the people who promote "free trade" to be something that actually reduces regulations. Trade isn't free if it is based on a class warfare between rich and poor countries. It isn't free if it requires a supranational bureacracy to maintain it. All my life I have never heard trade to consider whether a country is rich or poor in its negotiations, until the WTO and the "free traders" infiltrated our government. What does it matter if a rich or poor country wants to trade, if they have a desirable product to market? NOTHING.