Structural Adjustment & Global Division Labor

Question 1

Bretton Woods Conference

Answer 1

Conference in NH in 1945 to create institutions for increasing world financial stability

Question 2

Internation Monetary Fund (IMF)

Answer 2

Organization intended to stablize exachange rates and lend money to countries

Question 3

World Bank

Answer 3

Organization that provides assistance to developing countries to fight poverty

Question 4

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Answer 4

Organization intended to reduce barriers to trade and lower tariffs

Question 5

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Answer 5

Forum for negotiations and for settling disputes between countries and increase trade

Question 6

What institutions were created at the Bretton Woods Conference?

Answer 6

IMF, World Bank, GATT

Question 7

What year was the World Trade Organization established and what did it replace?

Answer 7

1995; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Question 8

What are the principles of the World Trade Organization?

Answer 8

non-discrimination/most favored nation status

reciprocity

enforceable commitments

lower barriers to trade, but allow government interventions

Question 9

Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs)

Answer 9

economic policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and IMF loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank

tie foreign aid to trade (blur aid and loans)

Third World Debt mounts (oil prises rise, interest and loans rise)

Question 10

How do SAPs work?

Answer 10

1. Nation-state must comply with IMF/WB terms
2. Regulation of trade through GATT, WTO- “free trade”
3. Service debt first
4. Private capital gains influence in global and local governance (ex. privatization of water in Ghana)

Question 11

What is the impact of SAPs?

Answer 11

changes in income & prices

lower levels of public expenditure

working conditions worsen for women