THE END of POVERTY?

the award-winning
DOCUMENTARY
(3: 33 11: 00)

JOHN PERKINS author, economist USA

- 24 000 people die from hunger or hunger-related
diseases.
- From the most rational economic standpoint this system
is a failure.
- Less than 5% of the worlds population live in the USA
while they consume over 25% of the world resources
and create 30% of its major pollution.
ERIC TOUSSANT author, president of the CADTM
EDGARDO LANDER professor, historian Venezula
OKOTH OGENDO author, law professor, Kenya
(Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt - CADTMs specific focus is the Third
World Debt and its aim is to achieve the cancellation of the external public debt in third world
countries and subsequently to break the spiral of deeper and deeper indebtedness by setting up
models of socially fair and environmentally sustainable development.)
The key date is 1492. From that point on we can talk
about globalisation.
The capitalist system and modern times started at
the moment of the Conquest. The colonisation and the
submission of the peoples of the Americas by the
Spanish and the Portugese.
The way the Bristish justified the expropriation of the
land was to use their own legal system. In 1897 the
colonial government decreed that in countries where
there is no settled form of government the land belongs
to the Queen of England and they appropriated
ultimate title to the land they passed laws and gave
settlers freehold interests.
Land was confiscated, appropriated by the conqistadors
and the colonisers throughout in South America, Asia
and Africa either by force or imposing taxes on heads
and huts that the people couldnt pay. Today more than
500 years later and dozens of years after the
independence of the countries people still dont have
their lands back which are still in the hands of large
landowners and transnational corporations.
IN KENYA, AT THE END OF COLONIAL TIMES THE
WHITE 1% OWNED 50% OF THE ARABLE LAND.

12: 30 - 23: 55

Case study 1: Brazilian sugar-cane workers (Sao

Paolo)

Having had their natural economy destroyed it forced to

people to work for their new masters. It is estimated that
today 60-80 million people still live in slave-like
condition all over the world. They work with their
families on planatations and mines. in exchange for
food and shelter.

What are some adversities the sugar-cane workers have

to face?
What does their daily wage come to? 6.50 dollars

WILLIAM EASTERLY author, economist USA

MICHAEL WATTS author, professor USA
EDGARDO LANDER professor, historian Venezula

Colonialism had very negative, lasting consequences

that we still have today colonialism is one of the big
reasons why some countries are still poor. For the left
legacy of violence the most obvious example is slave
trade. Millions of Africans were captured, kidnapped
and taken across the ocean under horrific conditions to
be slaves of the colonial powers.

What are the prerequsities for capitalism? Capitalism

cannot operate without free labor. Its a key cost of
production.

The European empires were built upon the riches stolen

from the colonies and on cheap or free labor provided
by the slaves. The gold mines of Brazil and the silver
mines of Bolivia (Potosi) provided the European empires
the initial capital to start and finance their industrial
revolution. The Pope himself gave Africa to the
Portugese Crown and South America to the Spanish.
 The transfer of natural resources, mainly gold and
silver, was the main reason for the accumulation of
wealth that took place in the Netherlands, the UK. This
extraordinary wealth was the starting point for the
English colonial process and financed their industrial
revolution.

- Why had Amsterdam become the worlds financial

center before that status was transferred to London?
_________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

Case study 2: Potosi miners (Bolivia)

In Potosi, in the bowels of the richest mine in South

America, miners of Potosi have built a museum to honor
the memory of their ancestors and their loss.
- Eduardo Galeano: With all the silver that was taken out
of Potosi it would have been possible to build a bridge
from Potosi to Spain.
Another bridge could have been built from Potosi to
Spain from the bones of people who died in the mine.

- How many people are said to have died in Potosi? 8

million people
- What problems did the slaves have in the Bolivian mine?
altutide, the cold, hard work, malnutrition

IN 1503-1660 SPAIN TOOK ENOUGH SILVER FROM

THE NEW WORLD TO MULTIPLY EUROPEAN RESERVES
BY 4.

25: 17 - 34: 32

To maintain the level of wealth extraction the conquerors

needed to keep their colonies in a state of dependency.
They assigned a function to each country or region as the
producer of certain mineral or crop that could be
exported back to the mother country. This imposed
monoculture plunged the colony into a locked economy.
The survival of their people now depended on the
 goodwill of the motherland from which they had to import
food.

Case studies 4. 5. for locked economies Venezuela

and Brazil

NORA CASTANEDA Womens Bank President Venezuela

What different powers does she name as the ones that
took turns oppressing them? The Spanish, the British, the
Americans
What two purposes did natives use oil for? medicine and
to repair boats
What did Venezuela turn intop an agricultural country? an
oil-mining one
What natural resources has brazil been exporting? sugar,
coffee, gold

JOAO PEDRO STEDILE Landless Movement leader,

Brazil
What natural resources are meant to be used to solve?
The problems of nutrition of the people native to the land.
How many people are starving in Brazil every day? 50
million
Where do Brazilians import goods and staple food from?
Thailand,
Argentina, Uruguay, Chile
IN LATIN-AMERICA THE RICHEST 1% OF THE
POPULATION RECEIVES OVER 400 TIMES AS MUCH
INCOME AS THE POOREST 1%
Having obtained natural resources and free labor the
Europeans now needed to create new markets for their
own productions. They separated agriculture form industry,
thus preventing the farmers from making their own tools,
clothes and other utensils and transforming them into
commodity buyers. All existing industries were
destroyed and the colonies were forced to buy
manufactured goods and equipment from their colonial
masters.
SERGE LATOUCHE author professor, France
ERIC TOUSSANT author, president of the CADTM,
Belgium
- It meant the destruction of social, political stucture as
well as the know-how and craftmanship
In the 18 century Indian textile was of much better quality
than that of the English. So they destroyed Indian textile
industry preventing merchants within the British Empire
from exporting fabrics from India its the case of
exploitation, plundering, destruction. Everything was
produced in London using Indian techniques, such textiles
was exported from London and forced upon India. ()
We also destroyed livelihoods. If one looks at the
appearance of famine it corresponds with the destruction
of craftsmanship structures with the land reforms
imposed by the British.
CLIFFORD COBB author, historian, USA
One of the legacies of colonialism is that the poor
countries of the Third World are continuing to export raw
materials to Europe and North America producing export-
finished products. This stems from a practice that was
developed long ago and the intention was to make sure
that the Third World countries remain backward and
dependent and are never able to develop. So to this day
they are continuing to survive on the export of raw
materials. This has always been to the disadvantage of the
country exporting the raw materials and it gets worse each
year.(Primitive accumulation is to privatize the means of production, so that the exploiting owners
can make money from the surplus labour of those who, lacking other means, must work for them.)

SINCE 1960, THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES HAVE

SUFFERED A 70% DROP IN PRICE OF AGRICULTURAL
EXPORTS COMPARED TO MANUFACTURED IMPORTS
42:04- 42: 48
THE RICHEST 1% OF THE WORLDS POPULATION
OWNS 32% OF THE WEALTH
The accumulation of resources on the Northern
Hemisphere created this huge imbalance making the
North extremely wealthy allowing Europe to develop its
industries and to create consumer societies. While people
living in the South became destitute, only able to watch
their natural economy being destroyed and replaced by a
commodity economy.
 MICHAEL WATTS author, professor USA
Something can only become a market if its taken out of a
non-market context. Something has to be bought and sold.
It can only be a strategic resource if precisely if you
exploit this resource. Primitive acculmulation is recursive.
It happens from time and time again under different kind
of circumstances. The reality is that we are no less
dependent on key strategic resources now that we were
in 1890. Its not just about oil but a whole raft of resources
that are absolutely indispensible.

OKOTH OGENDO LAW PROFESSOR, KENYA

What are not we as much interested in whats going on in
Somalia as we are in Angola and the Congo? Because
there are no resources to be expropriated by the resource
war.

CASE STUDY 5. WORKING LADIES, RECIFE, BRAZIL

TODAY MORE THAN 1 BILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN
SLUMS.
ERIC TOUSSANT author, president of the CADTM,
Belgium
From when did we begin to abolish empires? the end of
WWII
What ideaology do the one-time colonies come under?
Neocolonialism
Why does he say that policies forced upon the indebted
countries of the South are dictated from Washington?
Because thats where WBs and the IMFs headquarters
are.

CASE STUDY 6. CARACAS, VENEZUELA

When the countries of the South won their independence
the accumulated debts of the colonial powers used to open
new markets were transferred to the newly-formed
governments in total violation of international laws. The
only solution offered by the North was more debt with
extremely high interest in order to repay the initial one.
 These newly-formed states immediately lost their
sovereignity and became even more dependent upon the
Northern countries, which could then dictate policies on
agriculture, trade, customs and give special priviligies
to foreign corporations such as monopolies over mineral
extraction or monoculture exploitation.

ERIC TOUSSANT author, president of the CADTM,

Belgium
- What was the World Banks take on the situtaion?
You owe us so youll follow our advice n well tell you
how to develop.
Take more loans to build larger infrastructures to export
your natural resources.

JOHN PERKINS author, economist USA

We will identify a developing country that had resources
our corporations covered. Then we arrange a huge loan to
that country from the World Bank for example. Most
Americans believe in the USA that a loan is going to
help poor people it isnt. Most of the money never
goes to the country but to our own corporations.
And they make fortunes of building infrastructure
project in that country. Power plants, industrial parks,
ports. Its such a huge debt it can possibly be paid. If they
cannot pay their debts they should sell your oil real cheap
to our own companies or vote for us on the next critical UN
voting or send troops in support of ours to some place in
the world.
SUSAN GEORGE- author, Transnational Institute,
France
How much is Sub-Saharan Africa paying every minute to
Northern creditors as debt repayment? 25 000 dollars /
minute
It is actually the South that is financing the North.
What does the total sum come to by year? 200 billion
dollars/year
RAUL MONJON RAMIREZ Planning Ministry Director,
Bolivia
Who is paying the price of badly-utilized state-loans?
Bolivian tax-payers
 What does the sum of the accumulated debt come to in
Bolivia? 9 billion
What is Bolivias population? 8 million people
Make the calculation! (It almost coincides with the GDP!)

CLIFFORD COBB author, historian, USA

Poverty in the North largely exists because the resources
are owned by a small elite, individuals and
corporations. In the South the same is true. The resource
division is equally skewed towards a small elite but the
South also faces unbalanced trade and the problem of
debt. Poverty exist in every country in the world there is
no denying that. But the poverty is much more extreme in
the countries that are dealing with this triple problem:
trade, debt and monopoly power over resources.

THE DEVELOPING WORLD SPENDS 13 DOLLARS ON

DEBT REPAYMENT FOR EVERY 1 DOLLAR IT RECEIVES
IN GRANTS

By the beginning of the 20th century, the entire third

world had been split up amongst the powers of the North.
The two world wars forced the North to create new tools to
stabilize the now global economy. The IMF and the World
Bank were created with such an agenda but rapidly turned
their focus toward the Third World where new leaders
trying to bring economic independence to their countries
had emerged. The reaction was swift and used all the tools
available to bring these countries back to their previous
role, like the loans of the World Bank and the structural
adjustment programs of the IMF. These would later lead
to the crises in Latin America, Asia and Russia and plunge
millions below the poverty line. This new U.S.-born
economic model became known as neo-liberalism and
the set of policies used to enforce it became the
Washington Consensus which forced all economies to
let the market govern everything.

EDGARDO LANDER, professor / historian,

VENEZUELA
 Neoliberalism is a project which aims to profoundly
transform these societites. In Latin America it means a
restructuring of the manufacturing sector, reduction in
goods on the national market, the profound process of
deindustrialization. It reintegrates Latin American
economies and returns it to basic production. This form of
reintegration is characteristic of classic imperialsm in
need of natural resources.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ former World Bank Vice-

President, Nobel Prize economics, USA
Among what 3 institutions was the set of policies, the
Washington Consensus reached? The IMF, the World Bank
and the US Treasury.
What was its particular view that did NOT reflect a good
economic theory? It had a particular political view of
ecomics.
SUSAN GEORGE- author, Transnational Institute,
France
JIM SHULTZ PRESIDENT, The Democracy Center,
Cochabamba, Bolivia
ABEL MAMANI, Water Minister, Bolivia

All of the public companies has had to be privatized ()

under structural adjustment programs. So you get an
opportunity for private companies to extract wealth ()
Their number was 1300-1500 companies a year. They
were sometimes bought by local elites, particularly the
larger ones were bought by our own transnational
corporations.
Bolivia was the labrat cheap test-lab for these policies,
privatisation, market fundamentalism.
Railroads have practically disappeared since they were
privatized. In the east we dont have trains anymore. They
have been entirely dismantled. Last month workers went 7
months withour wages. The country has been destroyed
and thats the consequence of privatisation.
The Bolivian government, following a decision and an
order from the World Bank decided to privatize the
water and to do so started the following. First they passed
a law concerning drinkable water and gave a 40-year
concession to the international corporation, Bechtel
(1:03:04). () The water war started within the rural
population. It came as a result of the aggression of the
international capital and of the World Bank and and of
our neoliberal government toward the collective heritage
of the people. This privatisation is an aberration of our
conception of the indigenous and farming communities
that water is the blood of Pachamama (Mother Earth).

Neoliberalism - resurgence of ideas associated with economic

liberalism beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, whose advocates support
extensive economic liberalization, free trade, and reductions in government
spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.

ALMOST 1 / 3 OF THE WORLDS POPULATION HAS NO

ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE, CLEAN WATER. (1: 04:28)

1:05: 22
JOHN CHRISTENSEN DIRECTOR, TAX JUSTICE
NETWORK, THE UK
The IMF and the WORLD BANK by liberalizing capital flows
opened up a wholy new criminal environment where
capital can be shifted into tax havens (territories or countries where
certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. Individuals or corporations can find it attractiveto
move themselves to areas with reduced or nil taxation levels. This creates a situation of tax
around the world and evade tax. This
competition among governments.)
has happened on a truly astonishing scale. According to
the most recent estimates the volume of capital now held
offshore by rich individuals is 11.5 trillion US dollars a
stunningly large figure. And for those people who want to
 tackle poverty this raises intriguing questions. Because if
we were able to tax that capital even at a very modest
rate, at 30% of the income we would be able to raise 255
billion dollars a year of extra tax revenue around the world.
Which could be used for all sorts of brilliant purposes but
with more than the MDG Program (Millenium
Development Goal) to tackling poverty.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which range from halving extreme
poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary
education, all by the target date of 2015 form a blueprint agreed to by all the worlds
countries and all the worlds leading development institutions. They have galvanized
unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the worlds poorest.

ERIC TOUSSANT author, president of the CADTM,

Belgium
What do The World Bank and the IMF demand? A raise in
taxes paid mainly by the poor / That the poor pay to
receive education and healthcare.
What is the result of the privatization of the health and
education system? One waits until the family raises
enough money for proper treatment / One of three people
dies without having been treated.

ERIC MGENDI Communications Coordinator, Action

Aid, Kenya
How is the health system different from what it used to be
like?
People used to get drugs free of charge. Health care used
to be run by the government
Why do people die of simple things like malaria?
Because they cannot afford to pay the small fee required
to run the hospitals.
What did the World Bank insist? That the health bill is too
high and the government has to reduce its expenditure,
What did the governments reducing its expenditure leave
the majority of people without? An access health facilities
and education

CASE STUDY 7. KIBERA SLUM, NAIROBI, KENYA

 How much is the slum-dweller Joseph supposed to pay for
the exam and school fees? 64 and 160 dollars
What adversities do Joseph and his family face? they have
one meal a day and have to go without eating supper /
they are discriminated against / they cannot afford to go
to hospital / they live in a 15 sqf shack that costs 1/ 3 of
his mothers wages
What does his mother earn? 48 dollars

IN 1970, 434 MILLION PEOPLE WERE SUFFERING

FROM MALNUTRITION. TODAY THERE ARE 854
MILLION.

CLIFFORD COBB author, historian, USA

There is a great irony today that the developed countries
of the world are talking about free trade as if thats the
solution to the problem of poverty in the world. Much of
the history of the last couple of centuries has been an
effort of countries to become economically independent
through tariffs* to be able to develop manufactured
goods. ()
Now because the USA and European powers have
prevented Third World countries from doing that, and in
fact are imposing tariffs to prevent the import of the
finished goods from Third World countries and in fact are
not practising free trade its all their way of keeping the
Third World in their place and preventing them from ever
developing.
tariffs*(vmilletk) it is a tax on imports or exports
manufactured goods *(gyri ruk) finished goods * kszru

1: 12: 00 - CASE STUDY 8. KISUMU REGION, KENYA

What happened in 2013 under the guise of government
investment?
A US company reared its head in the region.
(Dominion Group of Companies)
What problems did dam-building cause for indigenous
people?
The river overflowed, crops got rotten, livestock
perished, health-adversive aerial spraying sickened
them
We are subjected to a life of servitude in our own
ancestral land
__________________________________________________________

Neo-liberalism managed to bankrupt many of the

economies of the South which allowed international capital
to take over. This was achieved by imposing a new form of
structural violence that was used for decades to maintain
these countries in a state of under-development. Such
violence was implemented by the dictators of the South
and their repressive apparatus which finally brought social
unrest that was unkind to the free market economies.
Special Agents and Economic Hit Men*
were born and became the new less means to maintain
such control over the globes resources.

JOHN PERKINS author, economist USA

According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince

the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped
countries to accept enormous development loans from
institutions like the World Bank. Saddled (megterhelve)
with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries
were forced to acquiesce (belenyugszik) to political
pressure from the United States on a variety of issues.
Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were
effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth
gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run.
Perkins describes the role of an economic hit man as
follows:

Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals

who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of
dollars. They funnel (tlcsrrel tlt) money from the World
Bank, the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid"
organizations into the coffers (the money that an organization has available to
spend) of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy
families who control the planet's natural resources.
 Their tools included fraudulent (csalrd) financial reports,
rigged (bundzott) elections, payoffs (bribes, lefizetsek),
extortion (blackmailing, zsarols) sex, and murder. They
play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on
new and terrifying dimensions during this time of
globalization

1: 18: 16
1: 19: 05 - 1: 19: 45
CASE STUDY 9. SADDAM HUSSEIN AS JACKAL,
SUBVERSANT
Why did the USA decide to get Qasim Iraqi president
assasinated in 1963? Because he wanted to get more of
the profits fro m Iraqi oil to go to the Iraqi people - not
to the foreign companies.
What two roles did Saddam Hussein play in rapid
succession in the process in question? the US hired
assassin and the 5th President of Iraq
1:22: 40
CUTTING GLOBAL POVERTY IN HALF WOULD COST 20
BILLION DOLLARS, LESS THAN 4 % OF THE U.S.
MILITARY BUDGET

For decades, poverty reduction and development programs

have failed to confront the different forms of power and
the structural violence that hold more than two thirds of
the world in dire straits (nagy nyomorban). Our chosen
economic model has created a global situation in which
today less than 25% of the worlds population uses more
than 80% of the planets resources while creating 70% of
its pollution.

CASE STUDY 10. ESSO SLUM, Tanzania * MNCs

(MultinationalCorps)
How are the locals put at a disadvantage against the
MNCs?
MNCs were given the most productive areas to mine
on.
MNCs are hugely mechanized
Veins interconnect underground. What would happen to a
small miner if he happened to work on the same vein as
the company? Hell be shot.

The World Bank and the IMF putting pressure on

developing nations, coming up with conditions so that
these countries stay eligible for (development) aid and
were further putting pressure on them to allow investors
in their countries so that they can help people to create
jobs.
People are being impoverished here severely. A lot of
money that could have been used by the locals are being
siphoned out into by some foreign countries.

IN AFRICA, IN THE 1990s THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE

LIVING ON LESS THAN 1 DOLLAR A DAY ROSE FROM
273 MILLION TO 328 MILLION.

MILOON KOTHARI, UN RAPPORTEUR, INDIA

Many peoplell have to be forced into landlessness,
somell have to die because were following the wrong
economic model. We have evidence from Latin-America,
Africa that these policies have not worked.

TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT - is an economic phenomenon whereby

low-income groups benefit indirectly from the accumulation of
wealth of those having higher incomes; that is, the income is said
to "trickle down" from the rich to the poor. This phenomenon
happens as a result of economic growth. For example, the rich
make investments to enhance their wealth, and those investments
can generate new jobs.
The theory fails to take into account of openness of todays market,
since the benefit that the rich receive may not necessarily create
more job opportunity for middle and lower class in their country. For
instance, if the increase in investment and spending are mainly
focus abroad then the follow-up (utlagos) benefit will not trickle
down to the workers.
The benefit given to the rich may not necessarily trickle down,
depending on their propensity to consume. If most of the benefit
are saved then the amount benefit that will trickle will be much
smaller. There is also a doubt that the increase in wealth of the rich
can be spent more effectively than funding other governmental
development project in the form of tax.

CLIFFORD COBB author, historian, USA

How is it possible that in countries in which theres
growing wealth therere actually more poor people than
there were before? Why trickle-down economics does not
work? Why doesnt wealth trickle down from the rich to the
poor? There are fixed amount of natural resources in the
world and those who own the resources are able to charge
higher and higher prices for the as the economy develops.
Consider the fictitious example: what would happen if we
lived in a society in which theres only one oasis that had
all the water, which everyone had to come for their water
supply. If a single person owned that water supply we
would all be forced to pay as much money as we were able
to. () If you lived in that society and you were having to
pay huge amounts for some resource - that could in fact be
owned by all because it came from nature - and theres no
particular reason for one person to own it. After a while
they would begin to feel intense resentment (neheztels)
trying to overthrow the people who own that resource.
1: 28: 55 / 1: 31: 50
 Poverty in the world cannot possibly be eliminated unless
the poor themselves say we insist on justice not charity.
One example of this justice is forgiving international debt.
A second element would be to change the tax system in
every country of the world. Right now most taxes fall on
the poor in the form of consumption taxes and taxes on
wages (income tax) (taxing income taxes what people contribute to the economy,
while taxing consumption taxes what they take out) If justice is to be done
most of the taxes must fall on property ownership and
not on wages, not on people. Third: the poor should
demand agrarian, land reform. Restoring land to the
people who actually work on it instead of a few land
owners. A fourth thing is to deprivatisation of natural
resources (the act of transferring ownership from the private
sector to the public sector. It occurs when a government attempts
to maintain the stability of its critical infrastructure when theres an
economic distress).

Weve seen in Bolivia thats possible where the Bolivian

people actually took back that water that had been given
to Bechtel, and they forced Bechtel out of the country. And
now the Bolivian people once more own that water.
1: 34: 30
The resources of naturere given to all of us and yet a
handful of people
and corporations have control of them oil companies
being a prime example that everyones familiar with. If we
could enable everyone to benefit from those resources we
could end poverty. And the way to do that is by restoring
the idea if Commons. (a javak)
(The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to
all members of a society, including natural materials such as air,
water, and a habitable earth. These resources are held in common,
not owned privately. When commonly held property is transformed
into private property this process is termed "privatization.")
The resources that are currently being privatized in the
hands of the corporate share-holders of oil companies.
 CASE STUDY 11. GREAT RIFT VALLEY, KENYA, tea-
plucking laborers

Our chosen economic system always was and still is

financed by the poor. They did so first by giving up their
land and their access to natural resources, then by
financing its expansion through debt repayment, unfair
trade, and unjust taxes on their labor and consumption.
In addition, by forcing the poor to overpay for energy, food,
and other basic necessities, the North ensures povertyll
deepen, inequalities increase.
SERGE LATOUCHE author professor, France, on
A/DE-GROWT H
ALVARO GARCIA LINERA vice-president, Bolivia on
EMANCIPATION

16 000 CHILDREN DIE EACH DAY FROM HUNGER(-

RELATED DISEASES).

The first attempts to commercialize fair trade goods in Northern markets were initiated in
the 1940s and 1950s by religious groups and various politically oriented non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) Fair trade is an organized social movement whose stated goal is to help
producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability.
Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as higher
social and environmental standards. The movement seeks to promote greater equity in
international trading partnerships through dialogue, transparency, and respect. It promotes
sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of,
marginalized producers and workers in developing countries.