What creates wealth?
Trade and the division of labour (with its specialization etc).
We want Africa to become richer. Thus we want to encourage more trade (both internally and exernally) and more of that division of labour. So we get an agreement (which doesn’t go far enough. Abolish CAP yesterday, for example, would have been a good idea) and what does Mark Curtis say?
While the G8 agreement
commits the richest countries to increase aid and write off the debt of
18 countries, it requires developing countries to pursue a raft of
free-market policies. The G8 is united behind this agenda, which
Britain has taken a lead in pushing.
Gordon Brown’s new deal
talks of the poorest and richest countries "each meeting our
obligations". Poor countries’ obligations are to "create the conditions
for new investment" and "more favourable business environments" while
"opening up trade". Only in return for these will rich countries
provide aid and debt relief and open up their markets.
All good stuff. Of course we should be encouraging the development of conditions for new investment, better business environments and so on. That’s exactly what ended our own poverty (there are those who point to the invention of the joint stock company as the most important part of the industrial revolution) and it’ll end theirs. And there’s no point in sending money to develop an economy if the basic legal infrastructure isn’t there for an economy to develop.
But Curtis thinks this is a bad idea.
Insane.
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