Even though the World Trade Organization believes in the idea of reciprocity, dominance is still the cause that dominates trade regimes. Dominance had always played the key role in trade. During the 18th century, the British Empire dominated the trade regime. The English East India Company monitored overseas trade and administered colonies. They controlled most of the slave trade as well. British was the hegemon, thus, they dominated trade. Now, in the 21st century, the position of the hegemon is disputed, but in terms of trade, United States is the leading nation.
The documentary Black Coffee is another example of how dominance plays and runs the trade regime. Ethiopia, the birthplace of one of the best coffee beans in the world, produces coffee beans, thus, exporting it out to other nations. It offers jobs to over 15 million people and provides up to 67% of their revenue since around 2 billion cups of coffee are drunk every day. However, their labor is paid at a minimal price. It costs $230 for a kilogram of coffee beans in the United States while it costs around 23 cents in Ethiopia. Where did all the money go? Private traders gain most of it by blocking others from coming in. While they barely earn any money, the workers work around 8 hours per day for half a dollar by picking quality coffee beans from a pile of other coffee beans. There are several reasons why this condition hasn’t changed over the years. First of all, the Ethiopians don’t have a lot of clue as to what is going on with the coffee beans they are selling, thus, they are not provoked to actually do something about it. The second reasons is the reason of tit-for-tat, where Britain and United States see no reason in change since this current method benefits them already. This example clearly shows that the dominant countries are the dominant players of the trade regime.
In conclusion, trade regimes are based more on dominance rather than reciprocity. Reciprocity plays a few roles such as inspiring trade between nations, but dominance plays the major role afterwards, where the wealthy countries take advantage of the less developed countries.