The GATT Minister Conference to be held in Tokyo from September 12 to 14 will be the prelude to a new round of international negotiations about further liberalisation of world trade. Preparatory work of some six years thus comes to its conclusion.

Many of the present difficulties of the world economy have been blamed on the two oil-price explosions of the 1970s. Professor Chichilnisky shows that, at least in the case of the oil-importing developing countries, the negative effects have been overestimated. In fact, in some respects the oil...