What relevance does World Trade Week UK have for developing countries?
While we are feeling the effects of the financial crisis here in the UK, we also know that the impact in poor countries will be even more profound. Developing countries are already suffering as their sources of finance – remittances, exports, aid and capital flows – are affected. Private capital flows to developing countries are likely to fall from $1 trillion two years ago to less than $200 billion this year. Some 26 million Chinese workers have already lost their jobs as demand for exports plummet. And as many as 300,000 miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo are now without work. By the end of next year we could see some 90 million extra people living in extreme poverty as a result of the crisis. We have seen the positive impact of international trade and economic growth on poverty reduction in East Asia, which since 1980 has trebled its share of world trade and lifted half a billion people out of poverty. World Trade Week reinforces the UK government aim to continue resisting p
