From the point of view of the I.M.F. and the multinationals, it makes economic sense. The trade bill also requires participating countries to join the World Trade Organization, even though many African countries have chosen not to join. The Organization for Economic Development, a supporter of the W.T.O., has reported that sub-Saharan Africa would be a loser under W.T.O. rules because countries that import more food than they export would inevitably be hurt by requirements to cut domestic agriculture subsidies. This is not a small matter. Four in 10 Africans suffer in some degree from hunger or malnutrition.
Agricultural subsidies can be a matter of life and death in such populations.
But most sub-Saharan leaders, faced with desperately poor populations and desperately high unemployment, have signed on. They appear to hope that in some way, somehow, a trade agreement with the big boys, with the United States and its great corporations, will alleviate their economic suffering. It's a situation ripe for wholesale exploitation. All rights reserved.