1. International trade is worth $10 million a minute.
2. But poor countries only account for 0.4 per cent of this trade. Since 1980 their share has halved.
3. Rigged trade rules cost the developing world $700 billion a year, according to the UN.
4. Income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallen by a quarter in the last 20 years.
5. The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries.
6. Nearly half the world’s population (2.8 billion people) live on less than US$2 per day.
7. The prices of many poor countries’ key exports are at a 150-year low.
8. The world’s 50 poorest countries have less than three per cent of the vote at the International Monetary Fund, an institution whose financial decisions spell life and death for ordinary people around the globe. Just one country - the US - has sole veto power.
9. At one full meeting of the WTO, the EU had 500 negotiators. Haiti had none.
10. After one round of trade negotiations, rich countries calculated that they would be $141.8 billion better off, while Africa would lose $2.6 billion.
My jaw dropped by #5 and I teared up at #9.
I don’t know who the richest people in the world are. If I could write them I’d say:
Dear Ma’am/Sir:
It is my understanding you are one of the richest people in the world.
Would you find time to read these facts and find it in your heart to hire a trade lawyer for Haiti?
Thankyou.
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Interesting post. Here are a few thoughts I had:
***5. The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world’s poorest countries.***
While the three richest people may possess that much wealth, I don’t think it accurate to say that they control it. Take Bill Gates as an example. Because he owns a large interest in Microsoft, he has incredible amount of wealth in the form of stock. But if he decided one day that he wanted to cash it all in at once, he find that the value of his holdings dropping dramatically. The value of his stock would no longer be what it was initially worth but what people would be willing to pay for it.
At a certain point, we no long control wealth; it becomes controlled by other economic variables.
***9. At one full meeting of the WTO, the EU had 500 negotiators. Haiti had none…. My jaw dropped by #5 and I teared up at #9.***
Teared up? The reason that Haiti doesn’t have a negotiator has nothing to do with the country’s ability to pay for one.
Haiti is one of the most politically corrupt countries on the planet. As one of the WTO’s LDCs (least developed countries), Haiti must comply with anti-corruption rules in order to receive special status. That country is ranked #6 on the list of corrupt nations who have embezzled huge amounts of money from developmental funds provided by entities such as the International Monetary Fund. There is no use in wasting money on a negotiator when you have no intention of following the rules.
Until the country cleans up its corrupt government, no amount of trade negotiators will help them get ahead.
You have a point Joe. But it might also be argued that there is no point in following the rules when the rules are set by the most powerful players to their own advantage. The nations that claim to believe in democracy (that would be yours and mine) steadfastly refuse anything remotely approaching democracy in international affairs.
I agree with you about government corruption in Haiti and other places. But I think we should deal with our plank before we busy ourselves over their speck.
Richard,
***I agree with you about government corruption in Haiti and other places. But I think we should deal with our plank before we busy ourselves over their speck.***
So what would you propose that we do (in regards to trade) for Haiti? While I agree that we have our own problems, their “speck” is leading to the deaths of their own people. (And I don’t know about the UK but the US gives Haiti preferential treatment when it comes to trade.)
I don’t have a specific solution for Haiti, Joe. I’m interested in this stuff, but by no means expert.
My “solution” would include
1. Complete reform of the IMF, World Bank and WTO so that they are democratically controlled and work to free the indebted nations from crippling interest
2. An international trade framework which allows developing nations to protect their own industries while at the same time giving them access to the markets of the developed world.
3. Strict controls on foreign investments in developing economies
4. Enforcement of minimum standards on such things as health and safety, the environment and employment.
5. Proper enforcement of the “polluter pays” principle to prevent the wealthy dumping on the poor
6. The widening of domestic anti-monopoly laws so that they can be enforced globally.
7. Re-imagining the nature of companies and corporations so that they are treated as machines rather than persons
Something like that
Joe and Richard:
I think we can agree that all levels of trade are corrupt or unfair.
I think we can agree that Haiti has come out of and is coming out of brutal dictatorship.
And I think we can agree the problems have to be addressed on every possible level, that’s part of the reason Canadian troops are serving in Haiti with the US. The troops keep getting diverted to humanitarian effort and do so willingly.
We punish a whole population, but not nearly as badly as they harm themselves. They don’t get enough schooling, they aren’t taught how to manage the land, etc.
They ranked 6th. So we don’t commit trained and honest people to the long term?
The pictures coming out of Haiti again this week are heartbreaking.
Yes, Joe I teared up, and as simplistic and as childlike as my request may be, it is the health care workers, the teachers, the agriculturalists, the builders, the law makers that we train in this generation and the next and the next that will help their country. In the meantime there is enough money in the world to give them representation and maybe from that, hope.
You asked about the three richest people in the world? Someone must be listening.
Here is a Yahoo News Article from Forbes Magazine on the growth of billionaires in the past year and it obliges with the identity of those three individuals: MS Founder Bill Gates, Private Investor Warren Buffett, and MS Co-Founder Paul Allen. The Yahoo article can be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&u=/ap/20040923/ap_on_bi_ge/forbes400_1&printer=1
I wonder where Theresa and John land?