Christian Aid's misguided protectionism

By Alex Singleton | 20 June 2005

Christian Aid says that Ghana's rice farmers have lost out from free trade and says they need tariffs to help them.

The British government has responded to Christian Aid's campaign for Ghanaian tariffs saying that tariffs on things like rice "can often prove a counterproductive instrument to safeguarding food security and the livelihoods of the poorest households, who are both producers and consumers". What has happened, thanks to imports of rice, is that Ghanaians have been able to feed themselves more easily.

Christian Aid also makes the claim that free trade has caused GDP to be lower than it otherwise would have been. Back in the real world, we can see that since Ghana adopted the World Bank's advice and started liberalizing its economy, it has enjoyed 21 successive years of stable economic growth. Adopting more protectionism would reduce GDP, not raise it.