EU and US unfair trade rules are robbing poor

Declaring free trade the European Union and the United States are robbing the world’s poor of billion of dollars each year in export earnings by protecting their own markets. Analysing Western approaches to trade in a report, Rigged Rules and Double Standards, Oxfam names the EU as the worst offender, followed closely by the US.

“Governments of rich countries constantly stress their commitment to poverty reduction,” says the report’s author Kevin Watkins. “ Yet, [they] use their trade policy to conduct what amounts to robbery against the world’s poor. Rich countries are fierce advocates of liberalisation in developing countries, while retaining high trade barriers against exports from the same countries.”

While the anti-globalisation movement has identified trade as a leading cause of the widening global inequality, Oxfam says that trading rules are the problem, not trade itself. “Trade is not inherently opposed to the interests of poor people,” the repot says. “Well-managed trade has the potential to lift millions of people out of poverty.”

A rapid growth of exports has helped to lift millions of people out of poverty in East Asia in the past 20 years, but the benefits are not automatic. “If countries are able to engage in higher value added trade, as in East Asia, export growth can contribute to rapid increases in living standards.”

For free trade to work for the poor, rich countries must start backing their rhetoric with real concessions to the developing world.

Oxfam ranks Europe first according to an index that measures protectionism by the world’s biggest trading powers, followed by the US, Canada, and Japan. They impose the highest trade barriers against the industries of most importance to poor countries: agriculture and textiles. Oxfam estimates that high tariffs and subsidies cost poor countries $100 bn a year – twice as much as they receive in aid.

The EU and the US spend billions of dollars each year subsidizing their farmers and protecting them from more efficient producers in the developing world. These subsidized exports from rich countries are driving down prices for export from developing coutries.

By posing as free traders while protecting their own industries, rich countries are forcing poor countries to open their markets to Western goods, using their control over the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Poor countries that borrow from IMF and the Bank are forced to cut subsidies and tariff barriers as a condition of receiving aid.

Notes: Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organisations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.

rigged – dishonestly arranged

advocates – supporters

2. Look through the text again and translate sentences containing –ing forms. Think about their function in each of the sentences.

3. Translate the sentences into Endlish using –ing forms.

1. Багаті країни захищають свої ринки, зберігаючи високі торговельні бар’єри.

2. Це призводить до зростаючої глобальної нерівності.

3. Примушуючи бідні країни відкривати свої ринки, багаті країни роширюють ринки збуту своїх товарів.

4. Справжні уступки країнам, що розвиваються, можуть спричинити швидке зростання життєвого рівня їх населення.

4. Comment on the following:

· In what way does robbing the world’s poor and protecting the US’s and the EU’s market correlate?

· Do you agree that high tariffs and subsidies cost poor countries $100 bn a year – twice as much as they receive in aid? Prove your point.

· These subsidized exports (food products) from rich countries are driving down prices for export, from developing coutries. What about Ukraine? Give your comments.

· Do you include this country in the list of the world’s poor? Prove your point.