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Setting the record straight: trade myths demystified.

Article Excerpt
MYTH 1: Trade liberalisation will reduce poverty and is the only way to achieve development. Free trade will benefit all countries--whether developing or developed.

FACTS:

* Even WTO and World Bank data show that many poor countries have been left behind in the free trade economy. Even as rich countries demand that poor countries open up their markers, the former have subsidised agriculture and blocked the latter's access to their markets. These agricultural subsidies effectively destroy poor countries' comparative advantage (which is often low labour costs, poor environmental regulations, and lax labour standards).

* According to the UN Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the world's poorest countries--the 49 least developed countries--have not shared in the growth of world trade. In 2002, the 646 million people in the top exporting countries--the US, Germany, Japan, France and UK--have 100...

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