NOTICE BOARD

This course focuses on the evolution of the global economy in the post-war period centering on the structures of international trade, international finance and macro-economic reform and their underlying impacts on developing countries.

The evolution of the Bretton Woods system from its inception in 1944 to the present is reviewed alongside an analysis of global debt and macro-economic reform.

The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO) are reviewed. The policy framework, which has shaped the global economic system, is analysed focussing on country-level case studies. The various agreements pertaining to trade, foreign investment, capital flows, financial services, agriculture and intellectual property rights under WTO auspices are reviewed.

The first part of the course will take the form of lectures complemented by classroom discussion on specific economic policy issues. The second part of the course organised as a seminar will be based on the presentation and discussion of country case studies. (For details see below).

COURSE OUTLINE

PART I (8 SESSIONS)

1. INTRODUCTION (one session)

Third World economic development in the global economy, historical background; social and political characteristics of developing countries by major geographic regions, North-South relations and the widening gap, global poverty and the causes of underdevelopment; the "emerging market economies" of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union; economic and social disparities between nations, the distribution of World income; international debt, global trade and macro-economic reform.

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2, Todaro, Ch. 1 and 2,

2. THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM- AN OVERVIEW (one session)

The Bretton Woods system, evolution of the global economy in the post-World War II period, the impact of the debt crisis on national economic development, restructuring of the global and national economies. Macro-economic stabilization and debt management policies. The role of international financial institutions, the IMF-World Bank sponsored structural adjustment program, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the new system of global trade and investment, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, Introduction, chapters 1 and 2, Todaro chapter 18. See also Third World Network, The financial crisis. Key documents on macro-economic reform and trade reform can also be accessed at the sites of the World Bank, IMF and WTO.

3. THE GLOBAL CHEAP LABOUR ECONOMY (one session)

Plant closures in the developed countries, internationalization of manufacturing, the relocation of manufacturing to the Third World, industrial export promotion, wages and labour costs in the developing countries, delocation of the services economy, import-led growth in the developed countries.

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, chapter 5.

Macro-economic stabilization, policy based lending, the policy framework paper, devaluation and the dollarisation of domestic prices, the State's public finances, the public expenditure review (PER), the public investment programme (PIP), price reform, trade liberalization, financial sector reform, divestiture, bankruptcy and privatization, institutional reforms, analysis of country experiences.

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, Chapter 3, see also the country case studies of structural adjustment in Globalization of Poverty (chapters 6-18). See the various intergovernmental and alternative web sites on structural adjustment, familiarize yourself with the literature on economic globalization.

See also The World Bank at http://www.courseweb.uottawa.ca/ECO6172/worldbank.html

Global "surveillance" of country-level trade and investment policies, relationship between the IMF, World Bank and WTO. The Final Act of the Uruguay Round. Analysis of the 1994 Marrakech Agreement, financial services agreement, agreement on agriculture, trade related intellectual property rights, the (defunct) Multilateral Treaty on Investment (MAI), deregulation of foreign investment, the implications of "national treatment" under the WTO, Seattle and the Millenium Round.

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, Ch 1. Consult the original documents of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/final_e.htm ; see the debate on the MAI and on the Seattle Millenium Round. See http://www.transnational.org/forum/meet/seattle.html; Selected articles will be forwarded by email. See also articles at http://www.twnside.org.sg/access_5.htm . See also http://www.twnside.org.sg/

The nature of Third World agriculture, the cash crop economy, the globalization of agricultural systems, the displacement of the peasant economy, famine formation, the role of the agribusiness and biotech conglomerates, the markets for seeds and farm inputs, the use of genetically modified seeds, destroying biodiversity, plant breeders rights under the WTO, the WTO agreement on agriculture, case studies of agricultural reform.

Readings: Globalization of Poverty, see the case studies on India, Bangladesh, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia. See the debate on biodiversity and the role of the biotech companies.

See FAO report on famine at http://www.fao.org/waicent/ois/press%5Fne/presseng/h38f.htm

The United States Department of Agriculture Says Yes to Terminator, Rural Advancement Foundation International,  http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RAF108A.html

Canada backs terminator seeds: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1408821,00.html

New patent aims to prevent farmers from saving seed by Chakravarthi Raghavan, http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/newpa-cn.htm

Intellectual Property Rights: "The Patenting of Life" by Third World Network, http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/iprharare.htm

Broad Issues pertaining to Biodiversity, Third World Network: http://www.twnside.org.sg/access.htm

Map: top ten agricultural exporters:/ world-top-ten-agricultural-exporters-map.gif

See also:

Lecture Notes on Agriculture (summary notes on agricultrual systems.

Niger, the year of starvation ahead

GM Seeds: Biowarfare in Brazil

Montsanto Genetically Modified Cotton

Ultimate War Crime: Breaking the Agricultural Cycle

The 1987 financial crisis. The 1997-98 financial meltdown, the Asian financial crisis, the Korean IMF bailout, reform of the global financial architecture, the Brazilian financial meltdown. Capital flows, financial deregulation.

Readings Globalization of Poverty, ch. 19-23. See articles at Third World Network at http://www.twnside.org.sg/ Several articles on this subject will be posted on the course webpage. .

PART II (4 sessions)

ISSUES IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS

This section of the course will comprise classroom presentations of term papers (focussing on country case studies). The latter will focus on concrete experiences of country-level macro-economic reform. The transformation of the system of global trade and finance and the underlying impacts on developing countries will constitute the central theme of this section of the course.

The case studies should bring to the forefront the relationship between the national economy and the evolving system of global trade and finance, i.e. how is the structure of the national economy affected by "globalization"? The underlying focus will be to examine the country-level impacts of macro-economic and trade reform under IMF-WB-WTO auspices.

The webpage of this course is http:/globalresearch.ca/ECO6172/index.html Notices concerning readings, assignments and exams will be posted on the site. Check the notice board.

1. A research paper (country case study)
to be handed in no later than December 1^st. and presented in class during the last four sessions (weight 50% of final grade). This assessment is based on a) an evaluation of the written text and the oral presentation in class as well as overall class room participation and attendance. Copies of a short 1-2 page summary of main findings will be distributed to students at the time of presentation.

    2. Exam (50%)

Class-room attendance is compulsory and will be taken into consideration in the final grade.

Note: The drafting of the research paper must carefully conform to Faculty guidelines on the use and quotation of secondary sources as well as style format (including the indication of all bibliographical sources in the form of footnotes or endnotes. A recognized style format should be used and applied consistently. Please consult these guidelines at: http://www.socialsciences.uottawa.ca/guide-en.html.

The course will rely heavily on specialized material. The following texts are recommended:

Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order, Second Edition 2003. Available in French under the title La Mondialisation de la pauvreté Ecosociété, Deuxième Édition Montreal, 2004.

2. Learned Journals and Specialized Magazines:

Third World Resurgence (monthly) published by the Third World Network, Third World Economics (bi-monthly) published by the Third World Network, World Development, Finance and Development published by the IMF and the World Bank, at http://www.worldbank.org/fandd/; Economic Development and Cultural Change, Development, IDS Bulletin, Capital, Labour and Society (Mc Gill University), Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), Journal of Development Studies, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, etc. See also Le Monde diplomatique (in French) (monthly) (also available in English on the Internet).

Material on the Web

The material below can be accessed directly by clicking the links indicated below on the web-based version of the course outline:

The IMF and World Bank sites provide information on country-level macro-economic reforms as well comparative economic data. The World Bank can be accessed at http://www.worldbank.org/: the IMF at http://www.imf.org/; of specific interest see World Bank, The World Debt Tables (annual). Contains review of global debt situation and review of debt situation of individual countries. See also World Bank: Annual Report; World Bank, The World Development Report (annual), contains in appendix main economic and social data on developing countries. IMF Survey (bi-monthly) contains useful review of IMF policies.

At the WTO site, you will be able to consult relevant documents on trade reform and the system of global trade and investment. World Trade Organization site at http://www.wto.org/; see the text of the agreements on the site.

All UN agencies (including UNCTAD, FAO, UNICEF and the regional economic commissions) can be accessed at United Nations site locator http://www.unsystem.org/index8.html; see UN home at http://www.un.org/ for access to General Assembly, UNSC, etc. see the site of the UNDP at http://www.undp.org/; see the UNDP Human Development Report.

The FAO site at http://www.fao.org/ provides material and analysis on Third World agriculture as well as an annual review of the global food situation.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) site at http://www.ilo.org / provides analysis and data on the employment situation as well as on human and labour rights. See also the sites of UNICEF at http://www.unicef.org/ and the WHO at http://www.who.int/ , which provide a review and analysis of social issues.

Financial Times (London) at http://www.ft.com/ New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/; Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/; Globe and Mail at http://www.globeandmail.com/; Forbes Magazine at http://www.forbes.com/

See Webdo at http://www.webdopresse.ch/fr_pays.asp?nav=anglais

See also Kidon News at http://www.kidon.com/media-link/europe.shtml .  

These sites include links to more than 8000 newspapers classified by country as well as country reference material. Constitutes an excellent tool for research on country case studies. See also newspaper links by country at: http://www.ecola.com/news/press/; newspapers and magazines of interest: Le Monde diplomatique (French and English) http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/: Economist (London) at http://www.economist.com/; International Herald Tribune (Paris) at http://www.iht.com/: The Independent (London) http://www.independent.co.uk/: the Guardian (London) http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/ the Observer (London) http://www.observer.co.uk/;

International Chamber of Commerce at http://www.iccwbo.org/

Institute of International Finance at http://www.iif.com/ Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) at http://www.weforum.org/; Economic Policy Institute at http://epinet.org/;

There are several news fora/ discussion groups on issues of macro-economic reform, international debt, biodiversity, environmental issues, famine, global trade reform, etc. See the home pages of the Third World Network (TWN) at http://www.twnside.org.sg/index.htm including TWN Third World Features

IGC has a menu of peace, environmental and economic issues: http://www.igc.org/igc/ .

Global policy forum at http://www.globalpolicy.org/index.htm See links at the Other Economic Summit at http://pender.ee.upenn.edu/~rabii/toes/

World Social Forum at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/

Corporate watch with links to issues of international trade and finance at http://www.corpwatch.org/ Development GAP at http://www.igc.org/dgap/index.html;

Environmental issues Eco IGC news at http://www.igc.org/igc/ independent media center at http://dc.indymedia.org/; on farm policy and agriculture see http://www.iatp.org/; Forum on Globalization see http://www.ifg.org/; see WTO Watch at http://www.wtowatch.org/; See also WTOaction at http://www.wtoaction.org/discuss/

Jubilee Campaign on cancellation of Third World debt at http://www.jubileeusa.org/start.htm

SAPRIN NGO-Bretton Woods dialogue on structural adjustment at http://www.igc.org/dgap/saprin/index.html;

Alternative Media (General)

Multinational Monitor at http://www.essential.org/monitor/hyper/list.html .

One World at http://www.oneworld.org/

The Centre for Research on Globalization at http://www.globalresearch.ca

Indymedia centers at http://www.indymedia.org/

Znet at http://www.lbbs.org/weluser.htm