FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 11, 2006
CONTACT: Jennifer Linker, jlinker@carnegieendowment.org, 202/365-1490

In a new Policy Outlook, Nickel and Diming the Poor: U.S. Implementation of the LDC Initiative, Carnegie Associate Viji Rangaswami argues that the U.S. should provide open access for least developed country (LDC) exports, which would yield real benefits to the global poor and allow the U.S. to reclaim its leadership position in the struggling WTO Doha round. Rangaswami outlines the issues and interests at stake and offers a proposal to provide the poorest countries open access while addressing U.S. policymakers’ concerns. Click here to read.

The Doha Round promised to focus on development and had explicit commitments to promote the development interests of least developed or poorest countries. Any realistic outcome of the round, however, will only produce marginal gains—in some cases losses—for the poorest countries. Rangaswami argues that such a result is not only unacceptable but also avoidable. At the December 2005 WTO meeting, wealthy countries agreed to open their markets to poor country exports by eliminating tariffs and quotas, a move that would dramatically alter the outcome of the round for the global poor by producing tangible gains for countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Malawi and Tanzania.

The current U.S. position on access for the poorest countries jeopardizes these potential gains says Rangaswami. The United States sought the right to exclude up to three percent of poor country exports from the open access commitment in order to shield its textile and sugar producers. 

Rangaswami urges U.S. policymakers to reconsider their position. She offers four recommendations on how the United States should open its market to the poor. She also analyzes the prospects for action by the U.S. Congress, and argues that broad based congressional support can be found. Rangaswami emphasizes that it is time for U.S. policymakers to work across aisles to defeat narrow interests seeking to exclude the products of greatest importance to the poorest countries.  

Direct link to pdf: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/Rangaswami_formatted.pdf

Viji Rangaswami is an associate in the Trade, Equity, and Development Project at the Carnegie Endowment. She was formerly minority trade counsel to the Committee on the Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her work focuses on how multilateral and regional trade agreements, as well as unilateral preference programs, can promote development particularly among the least developed countries.

www.CarnegieEndowment.org/trade
 
Press Contact:
Jennifer Linker, jlinker@CarnegieEndowment.org, +1 202/939-2372
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