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fpbI am almost certain of what I will say in this essay; let us say that it represents a growing black cloud of doubt and concern, rather than a certainty I would campaign for. But the more I hear about the various goals and claims made for the reform of international trade, the more I believe that, far from advantaging the poorest countries and increasing general prosperity, they would result in new injustices, new violence, and a further removal of power away from the average citizen and into the hands of unaccountable international bureaucratic and corporate elites.
I have this nasty gnawing feeling that both main groups have it all wrong. I mean, let us look at what granting their main requests would do. The third world countries believe that they can export themselves out of poverty by selling foodstuffs on an unregulated, open export market in the first world. NOw if that were to happen, it would certainly not be the many small farmers that form the majority of these countries' productive population that would benefit. Large-scale food export is capital-intensive and it favours large producers in all sorts of way. Open access to the markets of Europe, NOrth America and Japan would result in a massive redistribution of land and productive facilities, with the emergence of a narrow class of large landowners who will buy out or in any way drive out small subsistence cultivators. This will have a further negative impact on these countries: the new class of elite farmers and landowners, made rich by mass sales to foreign markets, will not be distinguished for any special learning, refinement, or ability to contribute to the community. They will have been promoted by those qualities - avidity, an eye for the main chance, insensitivity to obligations to others - which go badly with any public spirit or breadth of view, and many of them will be of peasant origin themselves, and no better educated than the mass. The formation of a powerful elite class that is defective in education and public spirit is not good news for any country - I speak from experience. The dispossessed small farmers will do what they always do, and migrate to the cities. Third World cities are already overpopulated cauldrons of unemployment and disorder; imagine free trade giving a further push to the growth of urban population, without a corresponding increase in opportunities!
As for what the rich countries want, we have already seen it in action in the last twenty years. They want "free trade in services", which, translated into English, means privatizing everything and opening it to "competition" from corrupt corporate giants. Considering that England is about to experience the privatization of its traditionally cheap and efficient Post Office, whose result is certain to be higher costs and less efficiency, I do not need to say any more.
I have this nasty gnawing feeling that both main groups have it all wrong. I mean, let us look at what granting their main requests would do. The third world countries believe that they can export themselves out of poverty by selling foodstuffs on an unregulated, open export market in the first world. NOw if that were to happen, it would certainly not be the many small farmers that form the majority of these countries' productive population that would benefit. Large-scale food export is capital-intensive and it favours large producers in all sorts of way. Open access to the markets of Europe, NOrth America and Japan would result in a massive redistribution of land and productive facilities, with the emergence of a narrow class of large landowners who will buy out or in any way drive out small subsistence cultivators. This will have a further negative impact on these countries: the new class of elite farmers and landowners, made rich by mass sales to foreign markets, will not be distinguished for any special learning, refinement, or ability to contribute to the community. They will have been promoted by those qualities - avidity, an eye for the main chance, insensitivity to obligations to others - which go badly with any public spirit or breadth of view, and many of them will be of peasant origin themselves, and no better educated than the mass. The formation of a powerful elite class that is defective in education and public spirit is not good news for any country - I speak from experience. The dispossessed small farmers will do what they always do, and migrate to the cities. Third World cities are already overpopulated cauldrons of unemployment and disorder; imagine free trade giving a further push to the growth of urban population, without a corresponding increase in opportunities!
As for what the rich countries want, we have already seen it in action in the last twenty years. They want "free trade in services", which, translated into English, means privatizing everything and opening it to "competition" from corrupt corporate giants. Considering that England is about to experience the privatization of its traditionally cheap and efficient Post Office, whose result is certain to be higher costs and less efficiency, I do not need to say any more.
