How exactly will the WTO force OPEC countries to cease their market collusion? First, there are exemptions in WTO for international commodities agreements, or loopholes for "resource conservation" and "national security". I'd agree that OPEC is a plain old money making cartel, but legally that gives them some room. Plus, many of the key oil exporters are not even members of WTO (Saudi Arabia, for example). Even for the ones that are, the only power that the WTO would have would be to allow us to impose retaliatory trade santions on them. But the only thing of great value most OPEC countries export is oil... so the WTO will grant us permission to impose sanctions or quotas on oil from OPEC, which will only make it MORE expensive in the US -- and the Chinese would be happy to buy anything we don't want from OPEC. How exactly does this help us....?

As for Buck's comment on "government breaking up monopolies". OK, how exactly do we use the U.S. Sherman Anti-Trust Act to prevent the soveriegn governments of foreign nations to cease colluding on oil production levels? It's not like "Kuwait" is a U.S. corporation -- it's the soveriegn nation of Kuwait. I'm sure we'll have no trouble at all extraditing the Emir to face charges in the United States.

Bottom line is that the power in this situation is on the side of the oil exporters. Clinton can talk about "fighting" all she wants but it's nothing more than naked pandering to the ignorant, which sadly, often works.