Points of Agreement: Problems, Players, Rules

What most civic society organisations agree on is the existence of problems, the key players, and the unfair rules of international economics and trade.

There is accord throughout the civic society on that the Bretton Woods institutions, the WTO, multinational corporations and the elites in developed countries are the major culprits of the present state of affairs. The unsustainable nature of global capitalism, indebtedness of developing countries making any development impossible, and the unfairly set rules for global trade are issues identified by most political proposals originating from the civic society background. Foreign trade, particularly agricultural, has become a prime target. Developed countries spend about a thousand million dollars each day to support their farmers, thus ruining the competitiveness of farmers in the Global South. Elimination of the farming subsidies and improved access to Western markets are the mantras of global activists who deal with the issues of trade and agriculture. Agreements on intellectual property, privatised services and investment are other targets for global campaigns.

Many organisations will also agree that in order to improve the democracy of the global system, the role of the UN needs to be reinforced at the expense of corporations, the IMF, WB and WTO, and that developing countries above all need more leeway.