World Bank chief says trade barriers indefensible

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Farm trade barriers are obstables to development in poor countries and are indefensible, World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz says.

"Let's put it simply," Wolfowitz told a National Foreign Trade Council dinner, farm trade barriers are "harmful and indefensible."

Wolfowitz spoke a week ahead of the opening in Hong Kong of the World Trade Organization meeting, which will take up the thorny agricultural protectionism issue.

"There is so much at stake for poor countries," Wolfowitz asid: "the potential gains are huge."

"Reducing trade barriers is the key to reducing poverty," he added.

The World Trade Organization is to hold a ministerial conference in Hong Kong December 13-18 in a bid to breathe new life into the Doha...