From the World Bank Press: "Commentary: Lifting Trade Barriers Will Help Poor"

To give us an idea on how to alleviate poverty in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) that have lagged behind the emerging market growth stories, a commentary from the World Bank press penned by Hafiz A. Pasha, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific should be able to help enlighten us over what are truly behind scenes…

From the World Bank Press: "Commentary: Lifting Trade Barriers Will Help Poor"

In a commentary published in The Jakarta Post, (Indonesia), Hafiz A. Pasha, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), writes that as high-ranking representatives from 53 Asia-Pacific countries gather in Jakarta on Wednesday to review progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ambitions of reducing poverty cannot be achieved without the opening up of international trade.

Nowhere is this more necessary than in the Asia pacific region, where the widespread extreme poverty of the 14 Least Developed Countries, or LDCs, is masked by a "tyranny of averages" that focuses on the rising prosperity of China, India and the East Asian "tigers." In the region's poorest countries, however -- a group that includes Timor-Leste, Afghanistan and Nepal -- almost half the overall population lives below national poverty lines, and their potential for reaching the eight MDGs by 2015 is seriously compromised.

To meet the Goals, ensuring that the poorest countries have something to sell -- and enjoy better market access -- must be an integral part of an enhanced global partnership for development. These countries, which comprise about 40 percent of the global population in LDCs, compete with a distinct disadvantage: In the textiles and clothing export sector, for example, the average tariffs faced by Asia-Pacific LDCs are higher than those by their counterparts, often outweighing the bilateral aid they receive. Likewise, market access preferences have been less favorable for Asia-Pacific LDCs than for comparable countries in other regions. A particular area in which labor-abundant Asia-Pacific LDCs need wider market access is for their overseas workers, especially those at the lower end, with low skills. Like countries in Africa and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific LDCs also must benefit from preferential trade schemes comparable to the Cotonou Agreement of the European Union.

The LDCs themselves have spoken on this, notes Pasha. Necessary policy actions recommended by the LDCs and endorsed by the United Nations Special Body on Least Developed and Landlocked Developing Countries are highlighted in a report being launched regionally Wednesday at the Ministerial-level meeting. To ensure the success of the global partnership, national policies must focus on mainstreaming trade into overall development plans and the poorest countries must carefully examine the social impact of various trade liberalization options. Developing countries of the region need to re-examine their own structure of protection, which often has weighed most heavily on exporters from the LDCs. And industrialized countries must ensure policy coherence to avoid negative social effects on the "losers" of trade, such as displaced female workers, or real wage decreases, which risk pushing people into deeper poverty.

Without action, achieving poverty reduction among Asia-Pacific's poorest countries will be daunting indeed. But if we strengthen the political will, we can shore up perhaps the best sources of future trade and investment growth in the world's fastest-growing economic region – and future dynamism for the global economy, Pasha concludes.