Development assistance, debt cancellation, and trade are all strategies to fight poverty and meet the Millennium Development Goals. Global trade has the potential to be a powerful resource to alleviate global poverty and support economic growth. Yet, unfair market competition has forced many impoverished countries out of the international trading arena.
Changes that deliver real benefits
Currently, the 50 poorest countries control less than 1% of the global export market. If Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by one percent, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty. In Africa alone, this would generate $70 billion – several times what the continent receives in aid.
Increasing this share, which can raise incomes in poor countries, will require the following:
Improved access to markets:
Many rich countries continue to limit the types and quantities of products that developing countries can export to them through tariffs and quotas.
Reform trade-distorting agricultural subsidies:
Current US agriculture policies encourage overproduction of commodity crops like rice, cotton and soybeans, and this surplus is dumped on international markets at prices well below the cost of production. This dumping undermines local production, threatens the livelihood of millions of farmers, and deprives developing countries of earnings and market share.
Right to direct trade and development strategies:
Poor countries must also retain as much control over their own development policies as possible so that they are not forced to make trade concessions that negatively impact poverty alleviation strategies.
Immediate Steps to Fair Trade
To promote real and long-lasting economic growth in poor countries, the U.S. should take immediate steps to create opportunities for developing countries to benefit from trade and investment. Specifically, the U.S. should:
Reform trade-distorting agricultural subsidies that play a role in depressing prices and distorting markets for poor farmers. These efforts should be taken through the U.S. Farm Bill in a manner that does not negatively impact small farmers in the U.S.
Give developing countries the freedom to determine the best ways to liberalize their economies
Sustain and expand market access for developing country products
Increase “aid for trade” assistance that will help poor communities and poor countries engage effectively in local, regional and global trade
Ask your Member of Congress to support the GROWTH Act, which proposes changes in U.S. international assistance and trade programs to prioritize the economic opportunities of women living in poverty worldwide, removing barriers that prevent their access to the world economy.
As ONE, we are asking America to reform unfair trade rules so people in poor countries can have the chance to earn their way out of poverty. Ask your Member of Congress to make trade work for the world’s poor by imposing limitations on trade-distorting subsidies in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization.
