CBBC
CBBC Newsround
Overview
How fair is international trade?
select this link for our guide to trade
A new deal to help poor families around the world has suffered a setback after talks being held in Mexico were called off.
This resource focuses on the way in which international trade works.
Students rig a set of rules, then investigate a multinational.
This activity needs class internet access
Learning aims
Icebreaker
select this link to read a report about rapping for fairer trade
Bending the rules
Look at the Highway Code.
Ask students: What is its purpose?
To make the roads as safe as possible for everyone?
Ask students to rework part of the Highway Code with a different purpose. They will aim to keep traffic moving as fast as possible. For example, a minimum speed limit instead of a maximum limit.
Students should:
Ask the class:
Main activity
Farmers need a fair price What are transnational corporations?
Explain that a transnational corporation is an enterprise with activities in two or more countries with an ability to influence others. (UN definition).
Find out about a TNC
Working in pairs students carry out research. Using the Internet and other sources they produce a short presentation on the work and potential influence of a named TNC.
Use the following questions as a start:
Examples
These are all good examples as their web sites provide much of this information.
Be aware that some corporations present very limited information - the class could discuss possible reasons for this.
Extension activity
Ask students to look up the UN Human Development Report on www.undp.org or in an atlas.
Compare the Gross National Product (GNP) of a range of countries, such as the Philippines, the UK, the USA, Tanzania and Peru, with the profits of these transnational companies.
Plenary
Bring the pairs together to share their results.
Can they agree on how powerful TNC's were?
How could shoppers influence trade rules?
Teachers' Background
International trade is worth £6 million a minute and growing fast, it has great power and can have a huge impact to improve or ruin the lives of millions of people.
International trade rules are agreed through the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Most countries are members and in theory all share in the negotiations equally. However, while a rich country like Japan can pay 25 people to work at the WTO headquarters in Geneva all year round, many poor countries cannot afford to have any representatives at all.
TNCs are huge companies that operate in several countries. Many are much richer than entire countries in the less developed world. Such companies can provide work and enrich a country's economy - or they can exploit the workers with low pay and destroy the environment.
There are few rules to set standards for the behaviour of TNCs - and the governments of poor countries do not have the power or will to prevent exploitation.
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