Developing countries - that house three billion poor of which almost one billion are hungry - also want to ensure that their consumers and farmers are not victimised by huge swings in food prices. When prices are too high, poorer urban consumers have trouble putting food on the table. When prices are too low farmers lose out, leave the countryside, and join those urban poor. This translates into high economic cost, lost livelihoods, and lost elections. ... There needs to be a WTO rethink to move beyond this clash of globalisations. Yet Western companies that stand to win from these trade deals - big agribusiness and pharmaceuticals firms, Wall Street banks, and manufacturing firms seeking to outsource - are highly concentrated and politically organised while the losers are very diffuse and unorganised. These big winning sectors flood Washington with lobbyists and campaign contributions, while workers in the North and South, farmers in developing countries, and fledgling start-up companies in the developing world lack the coordination and cash to put up a fight. The result is lopsided deals that accentuate national and global inequalities.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 05:24:03 +0000
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