• Trade liberalisation
• Agriculture impacts
• Environmental impacts
• Gender impacts
• Liberalisation and textiles
• Poverty impacts
• Special and differential treatment

Trade liberalisation

As the global slowdown spreads and deepens, protectionism is back. This e-book collects essays on what global leaders must do to halt the spread of protectionism. The essays which were written with a minimum of coordination provide a consistent response. Essays differ on many points, but three main common messages can be noticed:

• macroeconomic initiatives are the best way to fight this crisis
• leaders' words should be translated by agreeing a framework that will allow completion of the Doha Round
• world leaders should establish a surveillance mechanism to track any new protection

Some of the essays' noticeable views can be summarised as follows:

• the global recession creates a real risk of "beggar-thy-neighbours" trade policies being implemented
• the global crisis is an opportunity as well as a threat. It often takes a crisis to break the status quo and allow a new, better, more cooperative equilibrium to emerge
• to fight protectionism, governments should practice Keynes at home and Smith abroad
• governments must show that they have sufficient instruments and resources to keep the economy growing at a reasonable rate, and that effective safety nets are in place
• completing the Doha Round will help to reduce the case for regional agreements that many countries now use as part of a multi-pronged approach to trade liberalisation
• concluding an agreement to reduce trade barriers and cut farm subsidies is becoming increasingly difficult. The key is to act before a deep and possibly long lasting recession sets in
• the introduction of "variable geometry" into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in the form of critical-mass decision-making, would allow groups of members to develop initiatives and negotiate new rules
• the G20 should now explicitly extend their anti-protection pledge to include new discriminatory procurement spending
• the United States (US) should cap the distorting subsidies at a minimum of the current payouts. The compromise on the part of the US will make it easier for others to compromise on the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM)
• private sector pressure is now needed to finish this round and restore WTO legitimacy
• governments should step in to get trade financing back on track. Expansion of export insurance, for example, would be a decisive step in the right direction
• leaders need to convince ordinary voters that international cooperation and open markets are helping them, rather than hurting them
• finalising the Doha Round would be a great place to start, but it’s not the only option
• that leaders should consider

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