Doha and its Ilk are not Important

E Aboyeji writing in The Boar:

...instead of wasting time and resources on trade deals that will always find some loop hole within which to screw developing countries, why don’t we focus on developing infrastructure for regional trade — so that Africans for instance, can trade amongst themselves. Why don’t we focus on increasing the capacity of African farmers to meet the huge demand for food on their continents and supplement their efforts with aid money instead of importing American wheat few of us ever have the heart to eat? Most importantly, why don’t we invest in creating industries that can add value to these products so that if we need export at all, we can export peanut butter instead of peanuts, pasta source instead of tomatoes, banana juice instead of bananas. We want African coffee chains to compete with Starbucks and we don’t have to begin to blackmail you with pictures of malnourished kids just so you can buy “fair trade” coffee at the inconvenience of inflated prices. These are real solutions to development problems that are not as “white elephant” as Doha is.