Economics Focus: Punch-up over handouts
Free-trade economists question the widely held view that the removal of rich country subsides will benefit the least developed countries.
Abstract:
BURKINA FASO, in west Africa, depends on cotton for about 40% of its merchandise exports. Alas, prices are not always what they might be. According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee, a body that advises governments, world prices would have been about 26% higher in the 2001-02 season were it not for the $4 billion in subsidies America lavished on its cotton growers. Farming upland cotton in the United States was once about separating lint from seed. Now, it is a convenient method for parting the American taxpayer from his money.