At this week’s ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong, negotiators have once again hit an impasse over how and when to open the rich world’s agricultural markets to farmers in the poorest countries. What few people have realized, however, is that poor countries don’t have to wait for the World Trade Organization. There is plenty that they can and should do to help their own farmers to trade.
Imagine a dream scenario in which the trade ministers emerge from their negotiations this weekend holding hands and proclaiming an end to all agricultural protectionism. What then?
For, say, a banana picker in the Central African Republic, not a lot…
Continued at the New York Times, or on my favourites page.
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