 Trade
In recent years poor countries have been under pressure from the World Trade Organization and their rich country trading partners to lower their import tariffs and to open up their services to foreigners.
At the same time, developed countries continue subsidizing their agriculture and protecting their textile and other industries against competition from poor countries.As a result, developing countries experience trade deficits and a reduction in their fiscal incomes, since customs duties are a major source of income for governments in countries where subsistance agriculture prevails and the informal (non-tax paying) sector of the economy is large. To make ends meet, countries become indebted. Thus, instead of being a mechanism for social development, trade ends up draining already limited national treasuries.
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