The Trade Trap

This best-selling book explains how countries that depend on the export of primary commodities, like coffee or cotton, are caught in a trap: the more they produce, the lower the price falls on the international market. If they try to add value to their commodities by processing them, they run into tariff barriers imposed by the rich industrialised nations. To make matters worse, they have to compete with subsidised exports dumped on the world market by rich surplus-producing countries. This new edition contains an additional chapter which reports on the outcome of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the creation of the new World Trade Organisation. It examines the impact of rapid economic liberalisation on the livelihoods and natural environments of poor communities, and recommends ways in which trade could be regulated to protect their rights.