PERVERSE SUBSIDIES

Since its inception in November 2001, the Doha Round of the WTO has been unable to take even one step towards the apparently shared goal of liberalising trade because of industrialised countries\' subsidies of their own agricultural production, writes Norman Myers, who is completing, with Jennifer Kent, a book on institutional roadblocks. In this article, Myers writes that certain subsidies are bad not only for the environment but for the economy too and should be designated \'perverse\' subsidies. These are especially prominent in agriculture, fossil fuels, road transportation, water, forests, and fisheries, and total a whopping USD 2 trillion a year. Eliminating perverse subsidies would do more than virtually any other measure to stimulate and streamline our economies and safeguard the environment. Moreover, governments would find that with the freed-up funds they could cancel their budgetary deficits, slash taxes, and boost their health and education budgets by unprecedented amounts.