Race to the bottom
Free trade is a social issue as well as an economic one. To attract investors, countries compete to lower costs. That can mean offering cheap labour, weak environmental laws, lax health and safety standards or reduced social services. The lower your standards, the higher the investment.
1 Social security Free trade agreements open public services to private investors eager to access these ‘markets’. Profit-oriented healthcare and education corporations can set up abroad and demand equal rights.
2 Environment Free trade rules encourage the export of primary resources at the lowest possible price. Debt-strapped poor countries are caught on a destructive treadmill: resource exports increase to earn foreign exchange –> world markets are over-supplied –> prices fall –> exports are increased to make up the drop in income –> greater environmental destruction.
3 Food security Free trade benefits big landowners and agribusiness by lifting controls on food exports and imports. Switching from growing food for local markets to food for export increases hunger, lowers incomes of small farmers and reinforces unsustainable, chemically dependent industrial agriculture.
4 Political sovereignty ‘National treatment’ clauses force governments to treat foreign investors like domestic ones. Investor-state dispute mechanisms allow foreign companies to challenge laws and regulations which may hinder profits – including allowing corporations to sue local governments for ‘future loss of profits’.
5 Culture and health Corporations get protection for their intellectual and property rights while undermining the rights of workers and local cultures – investor rights trump human rights. Companies can patent seeds, genes and medicines thus alienating indigenous peoples and others from access to local traditional health treatments and resources.
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
