The General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT), now the World Trade Organization (WTO) was set up to safeguard against wrong trading practices. However current trading rules do not benefit developing countries, but have been manipulated by developed countries to suit themselves. For many developing countries their only hope of exports is that of agricultural goods. Yet the EU, the USA and Japan have systematically prevented the rules of free trade as defined by the WTO from applying to agricultural goods. Instead they subsidize farm inefficient production in their own counties to the value of US$350 billion annually, depriving poor countries of this production, market, and income. By comparison, foreign aid is only US$50 billion. This immoral policy can be described as amounting to a kind of extortion by rich countries against the poor. Many developing countries are quite justified in complaining that for this reason their relative poverty is not their fault. The global distribution of income, and inequality between countries, is partly caused by this inequitable trade policy. But it is not a policy specifically directed at Islamic countries. It is a case of vested interests and national interests overriding what is best for the welfare of the world community.
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 09:16:45 +0000
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