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poverty and trade > glossary
GlossaryAdvanced industrial societies: Nations such as Japan and those of Europe and North America whose economies are based on industrial manufacturing and the use of fossil fuels. While virtually all nations have developed an industrial base to some extent, the advanced nations dominate the world economy in both their use of resources and in the total value of their economic activity.
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Child mortality rate: The number of deaths among children under 5 years old per 1,000 children in the same age group.
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Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): The CAP came into force in 1962, and is a system of rules which regulate the production, trade, and processing of agricultural products in the European Union. It establishes a common market for agricultural products between member states, and protects those products from international competition.
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Compulsory licensing: A provision within the TRIPS Agreement allowing a government to authorise production of a patented product without the permission of the patent holder, for government purposes such as protecting public health.
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Developed countries/nations/world: See the West.
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Developing countries/nations/world: The world's less wealthy nations, mostly former colonies: ie most of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific. Also sometimes referred to as the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Development: A process of economic and social transformation that defies simple definition. Though often viewed as a strictly economic process involving growth and diversification of a country's economy, development is a qualitative concept that entails complex social, cultural, and environmental changes. There are many models of what 'development' should look like and many different standards of what constitutes 'success'.
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Dumping: The practice of selling goods in other countries at less than their cost of production. This undermines local production, and deprives the countries in which goods are dumped of foreign-exchange earnings and market share.
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Eco-efficiency: The ability of an economic entity to generate great economic value from fewer resources.
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Economic growth: The change over a period of time in the value (monetary and non-monetary) of goods and services and the ability and capacity to produce goods and services. It is economic growth which generates the wealth necessary to provide social services, health care, and education. It is the basis for ongoing job creation. However, sustainable development requires that there be a change in the nature of economic growth, to ensure that goods and services are produced by environmentally sound and economically sustainable processes. This will require efficient use of resources, value-added processing, sustained yield management of renewable resources, and the consideration and accounting of all externalities and side-effects involved in the extraction, processing, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of those goods.
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Economically sustainable: The characteristic of prolonged, careful, efficient, and prudent (wise and judicious) use of resources (natural, fiscal, human), products, facilities, and services. It is based on thorough knowledge and involves operating with little waste and accounting for all costs and benefits, including those which are not marketable and can result in savings.
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Economy: What human beings do. The activity of managing resources and producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services.
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Environment: A combination of the various physical and biological elements that affect the life of an organism. Although it is common to refer to �the� environment, there are in fact many environments eg, aquatic or terrestrial, microscopic to global, all capable of change in time and place, but all intimately linked and in combination constituting the whole earth/atmosphere system.
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Environmentally-sound: The maintenance of a healthy environment and the protection of life-sustaining ecological processes. It is based on thorough knowledge and requires or will result in products, manufacturing processes, developments, etc. which are in harmony with essential ecological processes and human health.
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Export-processing zones: Contained areas of production offering preferential conditions to investors, including infrastructural support, subsidised access to production sites, long tax holidays, and often weaker labour legislation.
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Fair trade: Equitable, non-exploitative trade between developing world suppliers and Western consumers.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Flexible labour: Employment which is often short-term or temporary, and which is less secure in terms of social insurance, pensions, and protection. Women's employment is increasingly of this kind. The phrase has become a euphemism for the erosion of workers' basic rights.
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Food deficit: A shortage of foodstuffs in relation to the recommended food needed.
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Food security: Access to sufficient nutritious food at all times.
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Food surplus: A surplus of foodstuffs in relation to the recommended food needed.
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Free trade: The movement of goods, capital, services, or people across borders, free from government interventions such as tariffs and quota restrictions.
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G8: A grouping of the world's most powerful economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US. The original G7 did not include Russia.
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GATS: General Agreement on Trade and Services. A WTO Agreement, containing specific commitments to liberalise trade in the services sectors, such as banking, tourism, and advertising.
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GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Agreed by 23 countries in Geneva in 1947, its purpose was to increase international trade by reducing trade barriers. It was replaced when the WTO was established in 1995.
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Globalisation: The complex network of links between countries and societies in the modern world. The processes (for example in trade, travel, media, and communication and information systems) through which decisions and events in one part of the world can come to have significant consequences for people and communities in other parts of the world.
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GM foods: Foodstuffs that have had their genes changed (genetically modified - GM) in order to improve their productivity.
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GNP and GDP: GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced by a country in a specified period (usually annually). Gross domestic product (GDP) GDP is calculated as GNP less income from foreign investments.
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Intellectual property rights: Private rights to the benefits of intellectual property, such as copyrights or patents. The TRIPS Agreement, signed in 1995, prescribes the minimum level of IP protection which WTO members must provide.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF): The IMF was founded in 1944 at an inter-governmental conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA, in order to promote economic stability after the Second World War. It has 183 members (as at April 2002), and is managed by a Board of Governors which meets once each year at the Annual Meeting. It has three main functions: 'surveillance', or monitoring of its members' economic policies; financial assistance, through which credits and loans are extended to member countries; and technical assistance, in areas such as monetary policy, data collection, or training.
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Lom� Convention: A multilateral agreement signed in 1974 between the European Union and the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific States), which governed aid and trade relations between these two groups. It was replaced by the Cotonou Agreement in 2000.
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Millennium Development Goals: At the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, 191 countries committed themselves to halving poverty by the year 2015 and meeting a range of other targets in areas such as health, education, and gender equity.
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Multi-Fibre Arrangement: This has regulated world trade in textiles and clothing since 1974. It is a system of quotas restricting the quantity of textiles and clothing entering the Canadian, US, EU, and Norwegian markets. Industrialised countries agreed to phase it out during the Uruguay Round of trade talks - the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing provides for its removal in four stages between 1995 and 2005.
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Multinational corporation: See transnational corporation.
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NAFTA: The North American Free Trade Agreement took effect in 1994, and will eventually remove most barriers to cross-border trade and investment between the US, Canada, and Mexico.
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Newly industrialized countries: A category including several Southeast Asian nations (South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Malaysia) that have achieved high rates of economic growth in recent years by attracting manufacturing and assembly plants for the automotive, electronics, and other industries. These industries have benefited from relatively educated workers, low wage levels, various sorts of government incentives, and generally lax environmental regulations.
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North, the: See the West.
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Parallel importing: A provision within the TRIPS Agreement allowing a government to import patented drugs from another country in cases where the price charged by the patent holder in the local market is higher than the price charged in another market.
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Precautionary principle: This term refers to Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development agreed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It introduces as customary international law the principle that, where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.
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Proper resource pricing: The pricing of natural resources at levels which reflect their combined economic and environmental values.
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Protectionism: Trade policies, such as tariffs (taxes on imports) protecting domestic producers from competition in the international market.
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Quad countries: The name used at the WTO to describe the four major industrialised-country markets: the US, Canada, the European Union, and Japan.
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Quota: A limit (in terms of quantity or value) set by government on the amount of a particular product which can be imported or exported during a specific period.
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Rules of origin: These determine the country in which a product is said to have originated. They are used to ensure that trade preferences benefit goods which originate wholly in, or are manufactured in, the developing countries intended to benefit from the preferential market access.
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South, the: See developing countries.
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Special and differential treatment for developing countries: An example is the principle that exports from developing countries should be given preferential access to markets in developed countries, and that developing countries participating in trade negotiations need not reciprocate fully the concessions they receive. Developing countries may also be given longer time periods for adjusting to new rules.
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Structural adjustment policies: Structural Adjustment Policies are economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank. SAPs are designed for individual countries but have common guiding principles and features which include export-led growth; privatisation and liberalisation; and the efficiency of the free market. SAPs generally require countries to devalue their currencies against the dollar; lift import and export restrictions; balance their budgets and not overspend; and remove price controls and state subsidies. Often SAPs result in cuts in public sector spending in areas such as education, health and social care.
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Subsidy: A financial benefit or form of assistance given to producers (e.g., grants, loans, tax allowances)which enables them to sell or export goods at less than their costs of production, thus creating unfair competition.
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Sustainable development: Sustainable development has as many definitions as subscribers. In essence, it refers to economic development that meets the needs of all without leaving future generations with fewer natural resources than those we enjoy today. It is widely accepted that achieving sustainable development requires balance between three dimensions of complementary change:
- Economic (towards sustainable patterns of production and consumption)
- Ecological (towards maintenance and restoration of healthy ecosystems)
- Social (towards poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods)
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Tariffs: Taxes on imports. Tariffs increase the price of imported goods on the domestic market, and thus protect domestic producers from foreign competition. Tariffs are also an important source of revenue for governments. Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) include a range of other restrictions on imports (such as quotas and product standards).
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Third World, the: Now generally referred to as either developing countries or the South.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Trade barrier: A measure which serves to raise the price of imports, driving a wedge between local prices and world prices.
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Trade liberalisation: Changing trade policies and practices so that the market can operate more 'freely'. It may involve reductions in, or the removal of, tariffs, quotas, subsidies, and other regulations.
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Transnational corporation: Correctly, a large company with shareholders in more than one country. The term is often used more loosely to mean any large, powerful, Western-owned company.
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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Uruguay Round Agreement: A set of multilateral trade agreements, which was launched in Uruguay, then negotiated between 1986 and 1994, and signed in Marrakesh, Morocco in 1995. It led to the establishment of the WTO. The Agreement expanded the scope of international trade rules to cover agriculture, services, and intellectual property (TRIPS).
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West, the: The world's rich nations: ie Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and (economically, although perhaps not culturally) Japan. Also referred to as the , the .
Source: The Community Tourism Guide by Mark Mann, published by Earthscan Publications, London, 2001.
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World Bank: The World Bank was founded in 1944 at a conference attended by 44 governments in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA. It has a membership of 183 countries (as at April 2002). Its headquarters are in Washington DC, and it has over 100 country offices around the world. The World Bank is actually a group of five organisations: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Its original purpose was to help rebuild Europe after the Second World War, and its first loan was to France for post-war reconstruction. Today, however, its stated goal is to help developing countries fight poverty, and to establish economic growth that is stable, sustainable, and equitable. A major part of its work is to provide financial loans and technical assistance to its members.
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World Commission on Environment and Development: Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 to examine international and global environmental problems and to propose strategies for sustainable development. Chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, the independent commission held meetings and public hearing around the world and submitted a report on its inquiry to the General Assembly in 1987.
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World Food Summit (WFS): World Food Summit, held in 1996, at which governments pledged to halve the number of hungry poeple by 2015.
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World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD): The World Summit on Sustainable Development takes place from 26 August - 4 September 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Governments, UN agencies, and civil society organisations will come together to assess progress since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992 (hence the title 'Rio + 10' for the Johannesburg meeting). Sustainable development is defined in the report from the Rio meeting as being 'economic progress which meets all of our needs without leaving future generations with fewer resources than those we enjoy'.
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World Trade Organisation (WTO): The World Trade Organisation, formed in 1995, is the international body which governs world trade. It does this through a series of agreements, or rules, which are negotiated between its members. A series of trade negotiations is called a 'round' (e.g. the 'Uruguay Round', which was launched in Uruguay in 1986). The four main agreements are the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS). The members of the WTO are drawn from countries across the world. They currently number 144 (as of April 2002), with others applying to join. The WTO's highest decision-making body is the Ministerial Council, which meets at least once every two years.
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