Trade Policy and Global Poverty

This study shows how changes in trade policies in the United States and other industrial countries could help reduce poverty in developing countries. Cline first reviews the extent of global poverty and its relationship to trade and growth. He then examines to the key components of these relationships to identify lines of trade policy action that could help reduce global poverty. Cline's analysis includes two new efforts to benefit poor countries - the European Union's All but Arms initiative, and the United States' "African Growth and Opportunity Act - as well as an analysis of developing countries' access to markets in industrial countries' key sensitive sectors and a look at the problems of "tariff peaks" and "process protection." Cline discusses the trade and welfare effects of further multilateral trade liberalization and the impact of export growth on GDP growth in developing countries. The concluding chapter revisits the link between GDP growth and poverty reduction and provides estimates of the extent to which global poverty may be reduced over the next decade or two under alternative trade policy scenarios.