From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM FINANCEIts conclusions, published in April 2002, were damning: 9Trade liberalisation has led to growing trade deficits, export growthtypically based on natural resources and low-skilled labour, and thefailure of many local manufacturing firms, particularly innovativesmall and medium-sized ones that generate a great deal of employment.Transnational corporations have often been the principalbeneficiaries.Financial sector liberalisation has directed financing toward large(usually urban) firms, with the largest share of loans going to a fewpowerful economic agents. Small and medium-sized firms, ruraland indigenous producers, and women are largely excluded fromborrowing, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities.Labour market reforms have led to fewer regulations concerninglabour stability and firing practices, thus facilitating the widespreaduse of temporary contracts and leaving workers with little recoursewhen employers choose to cut back their workforce. Labour rightshave been affected by restrictions placed on the right to strike and tobargain collectively.Privatisation has earned mixed reviews. Civil society groups drew adistinction between enterprises involved in production (where privatisationsometimes made economic sense) and those delivering basicservices, such as water and electricity (where access to affordable, qualityservices did not improve for the societies as a whole and, in somecases, worsened). In El Salvador, for example, poor consumers sawtheir bills rise at nearly twice the rate of increases for high-end consumers.Agricultural reforms have generally included the removal of subsidieson agricultural inputs and credit, liberalisation of producerprices, privatisation of state entities involved in marketing and distributionof inputs and produce, liberalisation of trade in agriculturalinputs and commodities, and currency devaluation. For example, inthe first half of the 1990s the World Bank and the IMF required thatthe state marketing board in Zambia be abolished, all maize and fertilisersubsidies removed, and price control ended. 10 Although some reformsof state systems were clearly required, only those producers withprevious access to resources and economies of scale have been ableto benefit, and markets have often failed to fill the gap left by theretreating state. 11299