Increases in technology have led to the expansion of international trade resulting in the world becoming one huge market in which the North and South are ever more closely related.

Yet in this marketplace the rules of international trade favour rich countries over poor countries. Many in the South rely on selling basic goods such as tea and coffee for their livelihoods, yet prices fluctuate widely.

Few have access to the market themselves and have to accept the prices offered by middlemen and landowners, which are rarely as high.