The Guardian view on the WTO talks: poor countries can’t be kept poor | Editorial

The trade liberalisation of the 1990s did not lead to higher economic growth rates. This should raise serious concerns for backers of globalisation

Putting off the crunch meeting of the ministerial World Trade Organization won't defer the chronic malfunctions of the world economy. The currency and debt crises experienced by developing nations, the eurozone's turn to austerity and the great financial crash are symptoms of a broken trading system built on the global role of the dollar. Deeply embedded within the world's trade and capital regime is a hierarchy where cheap labour goods from developing nations keep rich world wages down. Meanwhile, elites in the developing world run their nations in order to be able to consume in the manner of the developed world. Greed sees income hoovered away from most of the population by a wealthy layer.

The extensive trade liberalisation of the 1990s did not lead to higher economic growth rates. This should raise serious concerns for backers of globalisation. Are wealthier nations interested in raising the living standards in poorer countries? Or are they only really bothered about ensuring that debtor nations pay back their loans and open their economies to international trade and finance? The evidence suggests the latter: since the 1950s the evidence is that poor countries are financing rich ones through net resources transfers, rather than the other way round.