Swapping aid for trade

Given the choice, Africa would opt for easier trade over the ministrations of aid agencies any day. 

From Monday to Wednesday, WTO Director Pascal Lamy and World Bank President Robert Zoellick will make the case for bolstering Africa's ability to participate in world trade at a meeting in Tanzania, hosted by the African Development Bank, the WTO and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. 

Many indicators suggest that trade preferences are more advantageous than aid for poor countries, because of the knock-on effects. The most efficient African manufacturing firms are those that export successfully. There is also a knowledge transfer between successful exporters and local firms.

Yet protectionist measures in industrialised economies -- particularly with respect to agricultural commodities -- present obstacles to this 'aid for trade' agenda. Commercial lobbies in the United States and Europe are more successful at influencing policy in favour of their interests than consumers, an atomised group over which the benefits of liberalisation are widely spread.  No wonder donor governments are more generous about aid than they are to opening up to trade.