World Bank Reconsiders Trade's Benefits to Poor

[ShockediSay]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601689.html


By Paul Blustein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 17, 2005; Page D01

As thousands of trade diplomats meeting in Hong Kong this week struggle to break an impasse over a global trade agreement, some surprising new economic research threatens to throw a fresh damper on their efforts.

In a recently released book, the World Bank says that the potential benefits for the world's poor of a far-reaching trade deal "are significantly lower" than it had previously thought.

The bank has long served as a source of authority for claims -- by commentators, public officials and others -- that the ongoing trade negotiations, known as the Doha round, could lift multitudes of people out of poverty. The scaling back of the bank's projections is noteworthy....


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One (remarkable?) internet activist advocate for the world poor I found at
http://www.networklobby.org/

Do what you will.

[Darranar]

1. Took them a while.

How many people died as they ignored the catastrophe they were causing?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. DUH, they could have just asked me

The information on the harm that "free" trade does to the poorest of the poor has been available for years.

[Trillo]

3. Uh, oh, how much have world markets auctioned up based upon

the 832B figure, and if so, then how much are they going to now auction down based upon the figure that's close to 1/3 of the prior?

Ah, well, "they're just thought experiments." lol

[Spazito]

4. Okay, but this only tells me they have figured out another way

to help the rich on the backs of the poor otherwise they would not be publicly admitting what many have known for years.