In The News

Africa Hosts its First Major Anti-Globalization Forum

January 25, 2006
For the sixth time since 2000, NGO representatives, fair-trade advocates, anti-globalization protestors and activists of all kinds unite at the World Social Forum, this week in Mali. By tackling the problems of inequality, debt relief and trade realities that trouble the developing world, the forum serves as foil to the World Economic Forum, a meeting of the world’s economic elite, held...

Partnership In Question

Magda El-Ghitany December 5, 2005
More than two dozen European and Mediterranean states met in Barcelona a decade ago in order to work towards a shared vision of an end to religious fundamentalism and the advent of regional free trade. That vision is now in tatters. A summit held on the ten-year anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration failed even to attract many key Arab heads of state, and failed likewise to produce a joint...

Fuzzy Trade Math

Arvind Panagariya December 2, 2005
As the Doha round of trade talks approaches, the perception that agriculture is the principle issue that will determine success or failure remains accurate. Common assumptions, however, about the magnitude of EU and US subsidies are, in many cases, profoundly inaccurate. The conclusion that the Doha talks are bound to fail because of the obstinacy of developed nations is based on fuzzy math. It...

Why the French Love Their Farmers

Philip H. Gordon November 15, 2005
French President Jacques Chirac has admitted to a "profound malaise" in the country that led to the recent rioting, but French policy on farm subsidy is emerging as another source of malaise within the European Community. Policymakers all over the world are calling for great reductions in EU farm subsidies, since such reform would help stave off budgetary crisis as well as bring EU...

The Global Sweep to Mop Up the World's Oil Resources

November 14, 2005
China is scouring the globe for energy with which to fuel its economic boom. It has found much of that energy in Africa. Dangling promises of aid and development in exchange for access to oil, Beijing has forged partnerships with a growing number of countries south of the Sahara. The Chinese are not uneasy about dealing with African regimes considered too corrupt or too brutal by the West....

Globalization Rocks, but African Leaders Fail to Understand It

Franklin Cudjoe November 8, 2005
African leaders often describe globalization as an exploitative force keeping Africans in poverty. But in fact, it is the inept and corrupt governments of African countries which are robbing their citizens of the economic freedom to compete in the world market. Many leaders subvert their countries’ constitutions entirely in order to retain power and continue to feather their own nests with...

Fate of the Farmers in Balance

Edward Gresser November 1, 2005
This December, the WTO is scheduled to convene in Hong Kong, in what could be its final opportunity to adopt the Doha reforms. The negotiators aim to open markets worldwide by cutting the subsidies and tariffs that heavily favor producers in Europe and the United States, but disagreements have repeatedly obstructed their goals. For the average news viewer, the familiar media coverage of loud...