Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
3.5 GLOBAL
TRADE, AID AND
REGULATION
Global Trade and Aid in an
Interdependent World
In 1980, the Independent Commission on International Development
Issues (1980) published its famous report
North-South: A Programme
for Survival,
which emphasized the interdependency of the world eco-
nomic and political system and advocated a set of global solutions to the
problems facing many countries at the time. Famous for the iconic map
that divided the 'rich North' from the 'poorer South', the Commission
fundamentally believed in a substantial redistribution of resources
from North to South, mainly via trade, aid and more effective global
governance (Potter and Lloyd-Evans, 2009). This chapter discusses the
extent to which these visions have been addressed over time, first
through a brief discussion of international development aid and, sec-
ondly, through an analysis of recent transformations in global trade.
International Development Aid
International development assistance still plays a key role in global
interventions concerned with growth, poverty and inequality. Foreign
aid from official sources to developing countries amounted to around
US$103 billion in 2006 and over $2.3 trillion over the past fifty years
(Easterly and Pfutze, 2008). Official Development Aid (ODA) is at
the centre of foreign aid, and is largely provided by country members of
the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), although NGOs like
Oxfam also contribute around US$6 billion per annum (Burnell, 2008).
Aid can be given in several forms: commodities, food, loans, finance,
technical cooperation, debt relief (see Potter et al., 2008) or emergency
