This is the way to reduce global poverty.

Trade is the silver bullet against poverty

BY COPENHAGEN CONSENSUS

Post-2015 Consensus: Trade Assessment, Anderson

One easy solution could tackle multiple UN development goals: more free trade. In a paper for the Copenhagen Convention, Professor Kym Anderson argues that completing the Doha Development Agenda would have a benefit/cost ratio of between 1300 and 2800 globally, bringing in benefits of up to $772 trillion, half of which would go to developing countries. This is the way to reduce global poverty.

Summary of The Targets From The Paper

	World																	Developing Countries
Trade Targets	Total Benefits ($T)									Total Costs ($T)							Benefit for Every Dollar Spent	Benefit for Every Dollar Spent
Complete the languishing Doha Development Agenda process at the World Trade Organization.	$533									$0.28							$2,011	$3,426
Implement a free trade agreement between member states of the free trade area of the Asia Pacific.	$371									$0.22							$1,728	$2,559
Implement a free trade agreement between selected APEC countries (known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership).	$91									$0.07							$1,229	$1,870
Implement a free trade agreement between ASEAN countries and China, Japan and South Korea (known as ASEAN+3).	$243									$0.13							$1,914	$3438

Summary

Lowering trade barriers would contribute to four likely key goals of the United Nations’ Post-2015 development agenda: poverty alleviation, ending hunger, reducing inequality and strengthening global partnerships for sustainable development.Summary

While trade barriers have been reduced considerably in recent years, many remain. These harm most the economies imposing them, but barriers to imports of agricultural and textile goods are particularly harmful to the world’s poorest producers. Lowering barriers is politically easier if this done in concert with other countries. For developing countries, that is especially so if the agreement includes an aid-for-trade package.

Five current opportunities to reduce the remaining price- and trade-distorting measures stand out. Completing the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) would be the most beneficial, but three alternative Asia-Pacific regional agreements are also considered here. Although these do not directly involve the countries of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of the world’s poorest people live, these regions could benefit indirectly and substantially from the new opportunities to trade with East Asia’s booming economies.

One more potential opportunity not currently on the WTO’s DDA involves bringing disciplines to export restrictions to match those for import restrictions, especially for farm products.



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http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com//publication/post-2015-consensus-trade-assessment-anderson