The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade (No-nonsense Guides) - Softcover

Ransom, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1859843344 ISBN 13: 9781859843345

Publisher: Verso Books, 2001

Synopsis

The uproar at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle focused attention on the conflict between the mainly western-owned global corporations and the poorer nations whose natural resources and cheap manpower sustain corporate profits, and who are also the unwilling purchasers of overpriced and inappropriate goods. In this book David Ransom vividly reveals the realities of trade as experienced by coffee-growers in Central America or the workers making jeans in Bangladesh sweatshops. He examines the roles played by the WTO, UNCTAD, ILO, IMF, G7, and other powerful organizations hiding behind bland initials. Even when their motives are benevolent, he argues, their activities are often inadequate and misguided. About the No-Nonsense Guides: Major issues facing the world today, complex as they are, are further obfuscatedoften deliberatelyby political and corporate jargon and media spin. By contrast, New Internationalist Magazine has been a leading source of reliable information and clear analysis for the last twenty years. This new Verso series of No-Nonsense Guides, published in conjunction with New Internationalist, cuts through the confusion to present the facts and arguments concerning contemporary global issues as accessibly as possible. Concise, comprehensive, and affordable, the No-Nonsense Guides will be of interest to busy people, from school age on, who want to know how the world works.

About this title

From the Back Cover

World Trade was once the exclusive preserve of big business, run by transnational corporations more powerful than governments. Now the 'free' trade they favour is the focus of public concern everywhere - globalization and the World Trade Organization have seen to that.

But what's the alternative? The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade gives you a good idea. Dispensing with the marketing spin of orthodox economics, it tells the human story behind the things we consume. In the divide between consumers and producers, rich and poor, North and South, it discovers positive options that are already available on supermarket shelves.

The threads of a complex issue are pulled together into a summary of key concepts and factual evidence - a lively, digestible and radical guide for the general reader as well as campaigners and specialists in development, globalization and international affairs.

'If trade undermines life, narrows it or impoverishes it, then it can destroy the world. If it enhances life, then it can change the world. That's why David Ransom's book is so urgent. It is a crucial part of the argument for trade with a different bottom line, and it's never been so important. That's why I'm delighted to commend it.' Anita Roddick, Founder & Co-Chair, The Body Shop

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1859843344
• ISBN 13: 9781859843345
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144