Pietra Rivoli has a piece in The Guardian about how the abolition of farm subsidies is not necessarily the only or best thing to do for the development of the poor countries.

I’m perfectly happy to accept her qualifications of the argument and agree that, from the way she is looking at it, that the problem is indeed a little more complex than "Free Trade Now!"

However, only from the way that she is looking at it. "Free Trade Now!" is still the most valid answer to the whole Doha Round and WTO nonsense. For what do farm subsidies do to us? That $50 billion or so we spend in the EU propping up grossly inefficient farmers should go, the guaranteed prices that cost every family in the UK another 25 quid a week on their food bill, these should go for one simple reason.

Getting rid of them would make all 450 million of us Europeans richer.

The same logic applies to the US subsidies, the Japanese and all the rest. There really is only one logical answer. There will indeed be those who lose out and we can, if we wish, compensate them, but that answer is simple, for it is to our benefit.

Free Trade Now!

tag wto Doha