Oxfam logo
Search   

Item of 1 using search terms: 0855985259
Back |

Cover image for: Rigged Rules and Double Standards
Rigged Rules and Double Standards: Trade, Globalisation and the Fight Against Poverty

SERIES: Oxfam Campaign Reports
Description | Contents | Additional information | Other Languages | 

AUTHOR: Kevin Watkins Penny Fowler
SERIES: Oxfam Campaign Reports
ISBN-10: 0855985259 
ISBN-13: 9780855985257  STOCK CODE: 00255250
AVAILABILITY: In Print   PUBLISHER: Oxfam Publishing
FORMAT: Paperback (pp: 272)   297 x 208mm   PUBLISHED: 30 Nov 2002
READERSHIP:  Postgraduate, Activists and Campaigners, Professional and Practitioners, Undergraduate,
PRICE:  £12.95 (inc. VAT)  

Add to basketbuy online from the Development Bookshop
Download a free copyread online (PDF or Word file)

DESCRIPTION

Trade is one of the most powerful forces linking our lives, and a source of unprecedented wealth. Yet millions of the world's poorest people are being left behind. Increased prosperity has gone hand in hand with mass poverty. Already obscene inequalities between rich and poor are widening. World trade could be a powerful motor to reduce poverty, and support economic growth, but that potential is being lost. The problem is not that international trade is inherently opposed to the needs and interests of the poor, but that the rules that govern it are rigged in favour of the rich.

If Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by one per cent, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty. In Africa alone, this would generate USD70bn - approximately five times what the continent receives in aid. In their rhetoric, governments of rich countries constantly stress their commitment to poverty reduction. Yet in practice rigged rules and double standards lock poor people out of the benefits of trade, closing the door to an escape route from poverty.

Reform of world trade is only one of the requirements for ending the deep social injustices that pervade globalisation. Action is also needed to reduce inequalities in health, education, and the distribution of income and opportunity, including those inequalities that exist between women and men. However, world trade rules are a key part of the poverty problem; fundamental reforms are needed to make them part of the solution.

Oxfam's campaign, Make Trade Fair, aims to change world trade rules so that trade can make a real difference in the fight against global poverty. This report gives comprehensive research findings and analysis, presenting a powerful case for changes in trade laws, and a reform agenda to make these changes happen.




CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Foreword 
Executive summary
Introduction 

Chapter 1
Trade and globalisation in the twenty-first century

Chapter 2
Trade as a force for poverty reduction

Chapter 3
Left behind: poor countries and poor people in the international trading system

Chapter 4
Market access and agricultural trade: the double standards of rich countries

Chapter 5
Trade liberalisation and the poor

Chapter 6
Primary commodities - trading into decline

Chapter 7
Transnational companies: investment, employment, and marketing

Chapter 8
International trade rules as an obstacle to development

Chapter 9
Making trade work for the poor

Notes
References
List of background research papers
Acronyms
Oxfam international addresses


OTHER LANGUAGES
Thai (Summary)   Portuguese (Summary)   (Summary)   Dutch (Summary)   Arabic (Summary)   French  


Back |



Oxfam GB is a ltd company, reg in London No 612172, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Oxford OX4 2JY
Reg. charity No 202918. Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International
Oxfam GB Privacy Policy    |    Website Terms and Conditions