A breakthrough in global trade talks promises economic benefits for rich and poor countries alike.(The Week)(Brief Article)

* A breakthrough in global trade talks promises economic benefits for rich and poor countries alike. Essentially, the deal would have rich countries stop ripping off their taxpayers with farm subsidies that glut world food markets. In return, poor countries would stop ripping off their consumers by stopping them from buying the rich countries' food. Such is the peculiar political logic of trade: Governments agree to stop harming their own countries' interests only if other governments do the same. Whether American Democrats will allow the deal is an open question. They have moved, covertly but unmistakably, in a protectionist direction. At the Democratic convention, even Bill Clinton, the nearest thing his party has to a free-trader, tried to score points against President Bush by suggesting that he was not enforcing the trade ...