Would WTO Multilateral Trade Reform Benefit Sub-Saharan Africa?
Date of Meeting: 28/11/2005 to 28/11/2005 There has been much debate about whether low-income countries, particularly in Africa, should support the Doha Development Agenda aimed at liberalizing trade multilaterally. Concerns include the erosion of tariff preferences for their exports to the EU, and higher import prices for net food-importers. There are, however, offsetting forces: improvements in other components of their terms of trade, and the gains from agreeing to own-country reform. The overall impact is thus an empirical question, and needs to be addressed with an empirical model of the global economy. Anderson and his colleagues have used the World Banks LINKAGE model to examine the costs and market consequences first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies, and then of possible partial reform outcomes from the Doha round. The results suggest that moving to global free trade in merchandise would boost real incomes in sub-Saharan Africa proportionately more than in o
