No. They are nothing more than "industry representatives" that are to "uphold and enforce" trade pacts. These trade pacts are ambigious in that they attempt to predict the future and are placed above the laws of the nations involved. Suppose we enact a law in our nation to serve the people of the nation. Non-elected individuals, mostly from other nations, decide if that law will be allowed to stand. As an example, in Canada we wished to ban MTBE from gasoline. We, as a nation, made a law that should be allowed to stand. The law was not designed to punish one gasoline wholesaler over another, but applied equally to all. The WTO ruled against us, and not only did we have to strike downa law designed to stop people from being exposed to a cancer-causing agent, but we had to pay a fine for daring to make such a law.

People like myself are seen as anti-capitalist folks that want nothing more than to destroy our standard of living. Nothing is further from the truth. We are strong nationalists that believe that democracy should grow stronger over time, not weaker. Business is not the driver of our nation. People are. Our capitalist system is based on the ideal that we use a capitalist system to supply the economic needs of the people, not the other way around. We wish to be able to have the freedom to operate our nation as we see fit. If an international firm wishes to withdraw from our market because of a environment not suited to their business, that is their decision. Forcing us to alter our society to suit their needs is not right in the eyes of those that favour the power of democracy over technocracy.