Sign up for Thatbest of VICE, delivered to your inbox daily.
Russia's move to block Ukrainian imports last August and its threat of a fully fledged trade war against Ukraine united the public.
Even the Bank's new estimates say that fully free trade in goods could boost Africa's income by more than, say, this year's much-hailed deal on debt relief.The Doha round has always been very unlikely to end in fully free trade.
Fully free trade in farm goods would reduce poverty in 13 countries while raising it in two.A question of numbersBut lately the bank seems to be taking a different line.
Half of what developing countries could gain from fully free trade would come from their own tariff cuts, because a third of their exports are to other poor countries and because their tariffs are much higher than those of the rich.
The lavishness of farm subsidies means that the net effect of fully freeing trade would be to raise prices, by an average of 5.5% for primary farm products and 1.3% for processed goods, according to the World Bank.These effects are still much smaller than recent food-price spikes, but would they, on balance, help or hurt the poor?
When the Senate voted in the fall of 2000 to fully normalize trade with China, Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, issued an approving statement: "This measure will help open markets to American products and help export American values, especially freedom and entrepreneurship".
The open-outcry trading floor has given way to fully electronic trading.
If the exchange decides to adopt a fully electronic trading system -- and it is inching in that direction, offering experimental computer trading and starting a joint venture with Eurex -- members fear that it could doom the open-outcry system, eliminating the jobs of thousands of men and women who have staked their careers on face-to-face buying and selling.
John Thain, the NYSE's chief executive, could yet have to hurry past his hybrid idea and move to fully electronic trading much more quickly.
