International Trade Economics

This critical account of the fair trade movement explores the vast gap between the rhetoric of fair trade and its practical results for poor countries, particularly those of Africa. In the Global North, fair trade often is described as a revolutionary tool for transforming the lives of millions across the globe. The growth in sales for fair trade products has been dramatic in recent years, but most of the benefit has accrued to the already wealthy merchandisers at the top of the value chain rather than to the poor producers at the bottom.

Though mankind has traded tangible goods for millennia, recent technology has changed the fundamentals of trade, in both legitimate and illegal economies. In the past three decades, the most advanced forms of illicit trade have broken with all historical precedents and, as Dark Commerce tells, now operate as if on steroids, tied to computers and social media. Author Louise Shelley examines how new technology, communications, and globalization fuel the exponential growth of dangerous forms of illegal trade and considers diverse ways of responding to this increasing challenge.

È giusto cancellare il debito dei paesi più poveri? In che misura può contribuire a combatterne la povertà? Come agisce in questo campo la comunità internazionale? Personalità di governo e celebrità del mondo dello spettacolo, gruppi religiosi e Ong hanno attirato negli ultimi anni l'attenzione dell'opinione pubblica mondiale su questo tema. E si è andata affermando la convinzione che il debito del Terzo mondo sia la più tipica espressione del dominio del ricco sul povero e che sia quindi moralmente giusto abolirlo.