STWR - Share The World's Resources

The best way Europeans and Americans can make reparations for their past role in the slave trade is to end unfair trade policies that keep Africans shackled in poverty, a U.S. historian said.

The new free trade agreements being signed up between rich and poor countries are proving far more damaging to the poor than anything envisaged within WTO talks, Oxfam said in a report Tuesday.

Every year, Oklahoma farmers grow lots of fresh, healthy produce - so much so that a good amount gets exported out of state.  It is quite perplexing for food and health experts, then, that Oklahoma leads the nation in “food-insecure hunger”. Food security, which goes hand in hand with fighting poverty, is defined as the access to foods that ensure a healthy and active lifestyle.  The situation in Oklahoma, therefore, is such that farmers are exporting healthy produce while rural food insecurity continues to contribute to hunger and poverty.  This exporting of healthy foods that could otherwise be provided locally to rural households, however, is just one symptom of a much broader, distorted trade model that dominates current farm policy here and abroad - and again, with tragic consequences.

Pressure is growing for a shift in international intellectual property rules, to emphasize monopoly less and innovation more, thus helping to address the interests of the poor

Several developing countries have sharply criticised fresh attempts by the European Union and the United States to pry open their industrial markets through a controversial Swiss formula.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz may appoint a new resident director for Iraq soon, a move that sources inside the Bank say could contradict the institution's policies on engagement in conflict-stricken areas and put his role in the 2003 U.S. invasion back into the limelight.