World Trade Conflict: Has the Third World Been Cheated ?
The Conflict
Third world countries, having entered into free trade agreements with Western nations in the expectation of securing greater opportunities for their exporters, complain that these agreements are being ignored or circumvented in the West. Trade barriers, although reduced on paper, continue to protect important products such as textiles and agricultural products in the Western markets. The figures on developing nations' exports are not encouraging.
Political
•In the United States politicians hoping to keep the votes of American workers and farmers have turned against some of the WTO rules and oppose implementing some NAFTA agreements.
Economic
- Many Western countries claim that the problem is not market access but the productive capacity of the third world. In many cases developing countries export far less than they could because they do not have the supplies—not because of trade barriers.
- In the early 1980s a deep economic depression hit many developing countries, rendering them unable to pay their international debts. Western banks, under the coordination of the International Monetary Fund, began to carry out rescheduling of selected countries' debts, but in return developing countries were expected to abandon their radical posture on trade issues.
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