Trade Liberalisation : What's at Stake?

• Trade barriers seriously distort patterns of international trade, allocation of resources, and economic growth. The total economic costs of the barriers are estimated to exceed $475 billion per annum • Partial reform, such as envisaged in the Uruguay Round, would yield benefits of $195 billion per annum, of which over $90 billion would accrue to developing and formerly centrally planned countries • The EC, Japan, and EFTA, stand to gain most from liberalisation • Trade liberalisation will raise rural incomes in developing countries