Cooperatives work globally. Exchange of goods, services, financial resources, information, skills and knowledge across national borders is a growing practice not only among large conventional corporations but also among cooperatives. In the U.S., some cooperatives such as Equal Exchange, Pachamama Coffee and CHS, Inc. have traded or expanded their membership beyond U.S. borders for decades. Through analysis of some cases and the policy environment in the US, this session will explore lessons learned from a peer-learning partnership (funded by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission) that studied most advanced cases of cooperatives and other or social enterprises and organizations in these multi-national practices, as well as the main barriers and enabling factors that they have found in their processes involving organizational structures and commercial flows beyond national borders.
