Question: The WTO appears to think that more trade will automatically result in more wealth and less poverty but surely trade is predicated on the assumption that each country has a comparative advantage, whereas it is clear that maybe 50 - 55 countries in the world today have no conceivable trading advantage - not in terms of demography, not in terms of natural resources, not in terms of strategic or geopolitical location, not anything! Shouldn't the WTO give up the fiction that more free trade will solve all ills and recognise that the world needs an anti-poverty strategy as much as it needs a strategy promoting trade?
Answer: The WTO is not predicated on the idea that more trade is always desirable. The WTO is a place where governments come together and search out mutual opportunities to gain from trade. Nobody suggests that trade is a cure-all. I disagree that "maybe 50-55 countries" cannot compete at all on world markets. Such countries face plenty of challenges that affect their ability to compete, but they will progress as they reduce impediments to the realization of their competitive advantage. To suggest that some countries simply have no basis, now or in the future, to gain form trade ignores the practical experience of dozens of nations. But as I said, no-one is arguing that "free trade will solve all ills" as you put it. Of course we need anti-poverty strategies as well as trade strategies.
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