Extractive Industries and Development

   Last week, President Obama announced that the United States will be signing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which means that the US will now have to comply with the rules that regulate the global transparency for oil, gas, and mining. What that means, is that from now on the governments and industries that mine, drill, or otherwise extract natural resources from certain areas of land; will have to pay the taxpayers of that area justly. And while this may seem like a step in the right direction for the United States, there are other countries who would tell us that we must still be cautious. Another event that took place last week, was the Civil Society Policy Forum which was part of the World Bank and the IMF’s Annual meeting. During the meeting, several panels met and discussed the issues of extractive industries, resource management, and economic development. 

   The article that I found for this week ,concentrated mainly on the session lead by economist Paul Collier, Karin Lissakers, and Antoine Heuty. During the session they talked about the different ways that countries and their governments go about the extraction of their natural resources. And they found that while there are countries, like the United States who are signing the EITI, there are still countries that are taking advantage of the places that are supplying their natural resources. This often creates a gap of inequality between the richer countries that are often the one’s doing the exploiting, and the poorer countries which are usually the one’s being stripped of their natural resources at a much lower price than they should be getting. I think that this is a global issue because it greatly affects our globalized economy.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-harris/prosper-or-plunder-extrac_b_986293.html