The ethics of benefit sharing

There is an almost universal feeling that it would be unfair if a rich country went into a poor country, took out some of its natural resources, made a marketable product and earned vast revenues from it unless the poor country were given something back. It is intuitively straightforward that a nation, company or person should not make money on somebody else’s resources without paying for them. When the resources that benefits are made from originate from a country’s natural fauna, flora or metals, the sharing of benefits should bear upon the country or population as a whole, apart from compensating local collaborators for their work in a normal manner. The underlying ethical principle would be that countries should not exploit other countries. In particular, rich countries should not exploit poor countries. If rich countries take natural resources out of developing countries without compensation, it could mean that the economic potential of the exploited countries could no longer be realized when those countries have developed sufficiently to be in a position to exploit their own natural resources.