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Description
Why do trade talks
always seem to attract the far-winged, seemingly anarchistic people from
all corners of the globe? It's too bad the media do not show too
much footage from the these events, mostly because most big media
companies are owned by even bigger conglomerates, who in turn are in
most cases the target of such demonstrations.
Digging into the
reasons for such avid protesting can be daunting, however all demonstrating have his or her
reasons (in most cases, good ones). The first being
driven by union groups who are afraid of losing jobs to cheaper labor
supplies (an there will always be a cheaper labor somewhere else).
The breaking down of tariffs expose the US market to more inexpensive
products, thus reducing the need for locally made products. Other
reasons are very similar, in that cheap-labor countries sometimes
create inhumane conditions for the laborers because the safeguards we
take for granted do not exist there.
- The World Trade
Organization was assembled with the corporate profits (from First World
countries) as a main driver. Public health, democratic autonomy
(yes, even overriding rights conferred by the US Constitution would take
a back seat), sustainable agriculture, and environmental protection in
Third World (and in most cases First World as well) countries would
all be affected. At the same time First World countries are
pushing for intellectual rights of companies, aid to farmers (i.e.
mostly to gluttonous farm companies since family farms make up a small
part of the industry today), and retention of tariffs. It
is a very complicated picture and during such large conferences it is
difficult to see who is there to protect their pockets and who is there
for broader rights and ideals. Please take a look through the
links on the Trade page listed below.
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- Helpful Web Sites
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- Fair Trade Certified
- Global Exchange : World Trade Organization
- In These Times
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
- Make Trade Fair
- Public Citizen's
story on CAFTA
- Stop CAFTA
- SustainAbility
- The NAFTA Home Page
- The
North American Free Trade Agreement
- TIDEPOOL World Trade Organization
- Welcome to ONIA
- WTO
: Trade and environment
- Trade
Issues from Oxfam
- Public
Citizen on Trade
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- Helpful
reports
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- Rigged
Rules and Double Standards
- US Export Credits: Denials and Double Standards
- Make Trade Fair in the Americas
- Helpful
Books and Magazines
- "Trade
and the Environment" Magazine by the WTO
- "Rigged
Rules and Double Standards" by Watkins and Fowler (Oxfam and
MakeTradeFair.org)
- "The
No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade" by Ransom and Roddick
- "The
No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization" by Ellwood and McMurtry
- "Shaping
Globalization" by Perlas
- " Beyond Globalization: Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy"
by Henderson
- "Greening
the Americas: NAFTA's Lessons for Hemispheric Trade" by Deere
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Copy and Paste these book
titles into the Search Box below for available new and used copies.
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