Other disputes

Access to markets and global growth

Numerous NGOs, development agencies and think tanks believe that elimination of trade barriers imposed by developed countries and improved access of developing countries to Western markets is the way out of poverty and toward prosperity. Radicals, including members of the International Forum on Globalisation, warn against the threat of ‘mono-culture’ of exports and the growing dependence on it, and against the environmentally detrimental nature of pro-growth and long-distance trade, proposing instead food self-reliance and re-localisation of production and consumption.

Globalisation versus localisation

Another dispute, partially reflecting on the above, is the debate about whether the present state of affairs should be responded to by more or less of globalisation. Advocates of localisation call for a retreat from globalisation at all costs and for a return to diversity, locality, community, and subsidiarity. The advocates of the globalisation approach call for a robust, internationally co-ordinated approach, a new Marshall Plan, and institutions endowed with powers sufficient to tackle global problems.