Before and after after In the run-up to the Live8 concerts and the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, we heard repeated drumbeats of the consensus much about how the west can help Africa: debt write-downs, aid and trade liberalisation.

Debt write-down and aid apply mainly to Africa; but trade liberalisation applies to the entire whole of the developing world. Western development organisations such as the World Bank say that trade liberalisation is not just a necessary condition of development, it is also a powerful propulsive force. A recent report by The bank noted In the words of a recent World Bank report, “in a recent report that a reduction in trade world barriers to trade “could accelerate growth, provide stimulus to new forms of productivity-enhancing specialisation and lead to a more rapid pace of job creation and poverty reduction around the world”.