STWR - Share The World's Resources

Behind the currency wars and the worsening global economic crisis lies a largely unquestioned free trade model that, without radical reform, is a major obstacle to a sustainable recovery. International trade should be based on cooperation, not competition, argues Myriam vander Stichele.

The West African cotton industry is blocked by a wall of free cash dished out by the United States and European Union to their farmers, robbing 10 million West African farmers of $250m as price-fixing benefits rich countries over poor nations. A report by the Fairtrade Foundation.

Global trade talks have been at a standstill for much of the last decade, yet corporations continue to influence ongoing bilateral negotiations. Popular resistance to rigged agreements is increasingly difficult, yet no less urgent, argues David Cronin.

There is considerable evidence that the free trade agreements pursued by the European Union with Colombia and Peru may exacerbate human rights abuses and inequality in the region, says a report by the Transnational Institute and the Center for Research and Documentation Chile-Latin America.

Without genuine reform of both governance and policy recommendations, the International Monetary Fund’s expanded crisis role may actually keep low-income countries from recovering, push them into greater debt, and hinder long-term development, says a report by Jubilee USA.

The proposed US-Korea Free Trade Agreement will advance corporate power and profitability at the expense of public needs and capacities. Saying no to this and other free trade agreements is one way we can challenge the domination of market imperatives over our lives, argue Christine Ahn and Martin Hart-Landsberg.

The changes in governance structure currently on the table at the International Monetary Fund  meetings are largely cosmetic. But if a sizeable group of the world's developing countries agreed to act as a bloc, they could really shift the balance of power, writes Mark Weisbrot.