Covid-19 Straw Breaks Free Trade Camel ’s Back

By Jomo Kwame SundaramKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 19 2020 (IPS) Economic growth is supposed to be the tide that lifts all boats. According to the conventional wisdom until recently, growth in China, India and East Asian countries took off thanks to opening up to international trade and investment. Such growth is said to have greatly reduced poverty despite growing inequality in both sub-continental economies and many other countries. Other developing countries have been urged to do the same, i.e., liberalize trade and attract foreign investments. Jomo Kwame SundaramDoha Round ‘dead in water’ However, multilateral trade negotiations under World Trade Organization (WTO) auspices have gone nowhere since the late 1990s, even with the so-called Doha Development Round begun in 2001 as developing countries rallied to support the US after 9/11. After the North continued to push their interests despite their ostensible commitment to a developmental outcome, the Obama administration was never interested in completing the Round, and undermined the WTO’s functioning, e.g., its dispute settlement arrangements, even before Trump was elected. To be sure, the Doha Round proposals were hardly ‘developmental’ by any standards, with most developing countries barely benefitting, if not actually worse off following the measures envisaged, even according to World Bank and other studies. GVC miracle? According to the World Bank’s annual flagship World Development Report (WDR) 2020 o...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Economy & Trade Global Globalisation Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity TerraViva United Nations Trade & Investment Source Type: news