International Trade and Global Civil Society

Book excerpt: This study challenges the dominant tendency of civil society to negate international trade as such. The authors argue that it is necessary to frame differentiated trade rules based on levels of economic development, and also to shift from subsidies to shore up uncompetitive livelihoods to productivity-enhancing investments.Most importantly, the book ends with a case for trade unions, women's organizations and other civil society organizations to imagine and create themselves as being global -- in order to take up the challenge of strengthening global countervailing power to capital.