North American Free Trade ( Nafta ) And The International...

Ever since organizations and agreements like the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were created around the end of World War 2 to supposedly help the Third World nations to establish better economies and governments, they have only done more harm than good for these nations. These third world countries end up becoming exploited and extorted, forced to become dependent on the big international organizations like the IMF because of the exorbitant interest rates charged on them, thus they remain forever in debt. The accumulation of debt then allows the IMF to have more voice over how the indebted countries should be shaped and how they should run their economy. What ends up happening then is that their†¦show more content†¦Because of such policies, many women end up struggling at home and eventually, in desperation, they end up leaving home to find work elsewhere. First, let us examine how economic policies like the structural adjustment policies implemented by the IMF affect a country. A great example of this is detailed in Ault and Sandberg’s â€Å"Our Policies, Their Consequences†, where both authors explore how seriously the structural adjustment policies changed the economic state in Zambia. As these authors point out, the terms of the loans â€Å"reflect the economic and political interests and values of the world’s wealthiest nations (470)†. It is seen here already that that does not bode well for Zambia. One clearly can see that globalization is just another way first world nations still colonize the world, but instead through means of economic and trade conquests. Now, the article continues on to talk about the kind of changes that the IMF implemented on Zambia: they wanted them to devalue their currency and stop supporting many domestic programs, social welfare programs, and fire federal employees and instead they wanted them to focus on increasing their exports for the global market. And what are changes without its consequences? Because the IMF favored the growth of international markets, the local economy in Zambia suffered greatly. Devalued