Editing Neocolonialism (section)

=== Multinational corporations ===
{{Main|Multinational corporation}}
Critics of the practice of neocolonialism also argue that investment by [[multinational corporation]]s enriches few in underdeveloped countries and causes [[humanitarian]], [[Natural environment|environmental]] and [[ecological]] damage to their populations. They argue that this results in [[sustainable development|unsustainable development]] and perpetual underdevelopment. These countries remain reservoirs of cheap labor and raw materials, while restricting access to advanced production techniques to develop their own economies. In some countries, monopolization of natural resources, while initially leading to an influx of investment, is often followed by increases in unemployment, poverty and a decline in per-capita income.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0404-06.htm |title=World Bank, IMF Threw Colombia Into Tailspin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929095554/http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0404-06.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2012 |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |date=April 4, 2002}}</ref>

In the West African nations of Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Mauritania, fishing was historically central to the economy. Beginning in 1979, the European Union began negotiating contracts with governments for fishing off the coast of West Africa. Unsustainable commercial over-fishing by foreign fleets played a significant role in large-scale unemployment and migration of people across the region.<ref>{{Cite news |last=LaFraniere |first=Sharon |date=January 14, 2008 |title=Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/world/africa/14fishing.html |access-date=August 27, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> This violates the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]], which recognises the importance of fishing to local communities and insists that government fishing agreements with foreign companies should target only surplus stocks.<ref>[[#UN2007|United Nations 2007]]</ref>

[[Oxfam]]'s 2024 report "Inequality, Inc" concludes that multinational corporations located in the [[Global North]] are "perpetuating a colonial style 'extractivist' model" across the Global South as the economies of the latter "are locked into exporting primary commodities, from copper to coffee" to these multinationals.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/inequality-inc|title=Inequality, Inc.: How corporate power divides our world and the need for a new era of public action|last=Riddell|first=Rebecca|display-authors=etal.|date=15 January 2024 |website=Oxfam International |publisher= |access-date=18 January 2024 |quote=}}
</ref>