From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Apr 26 2007 - 20:42:35 EDT
----- Original Message ----- From: GDAE Announce Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 4:07 PM Subject: No Fast Track to Global Poverty Reduction No Fast Track to Global Poverty Reduction GDAE Policy Brief No. 07-02, April 2007 Timothy A. Wise and Kevin P. Gallagher The March 31 deadline for the Bush Administration to submit a World Trade Organization agreement to Congress under its current "fast track" trade promotion authority has passed, with talks still stalled over agricultural issues. Yet Congressional Democrats have been quietly negotiating with the Bush Administration to achieve a bipartisan consensus on trade, one that can move forward not only the Doha negotiations but the range of bilateral trade deals - Colombia, Peru, Panama, and now South Korea - now on the table. Congress should think twice before extending fast track authority to achieve a new WTO agreement. Those promoting this new bipartisanship cite the Doha mandate to make this a "development round" of negotiations that fosters economic development for the world's poorest countries. Most evidence suggests that the emerging set of tariff and subsidy reductions will have little impact on global poverty; according to the World Bank, the number of people living on less than a dollar-a-day will decline by less than one-half of one percent with a Doha deal. More worrisome, some the world's poorest nations may end up worse off, while some of the poorest people - small farmers - lose ground even in countries the World Bank predicts will gain from an agreement. Finally, the costs of liberalization to poor countries, particularly in lost tariff revenue on which they depend for key government services, make the new WTO agreement anything but friendly to development and poverty reduction. Download Policy Brief: <http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB07-02WTOPovertyApr07.pdf> See other analyses of the Doha Round: <http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/WTO05.htm> For more on GDAE's Globalization and Sustainable Development Program: <http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html>
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