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April 03, 2003
Neither trade nor aid
"Trade not aid" has long been the mantra of the anti-foreign-aid crowd. Yet Western countries' tariffs outweight the impact of debt relief.
Unfortunately, leftists are as much to blame for this as conservatives. Talk of reducing farm subsidies is met with moans about the "death of the family farm" despite the fact that most subsidies go to big agri-businesses anyway. Further, protecting Western farms is killing family farms in poor countries, who don't have a developed manufacturing or service sector.
So the poor remain poor, trapped by ideological blinkers.
Posted by Tyrone at April 3, 2003 03:12 PM