Interesting NYTimes article from Dec. 16, by Tim Harford.

Excerpt:

AT this week's ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong, negotiators have once again hit an impasse over how and when to open the rich world's agricultural markets to farmers in the poorest countries. What few people have realized, however, is that poor countries don't have to wait for the World Trade Organization. There is plenty that they can and should do to help their own farmers to trade.

Part of the problem, of course, is that landlocked African countries are linked to the outside world by long, decrepit roads and underdeveloped ports in neighboring countries. But determined growers can move bananas along even lousy roads. The real problem is elsewhere: three-quarters of delays are the result of red tape, not port handling or inland transport. These delays, caused by senseless bureaucracy, unnecessary forms and archaic inspection practices, can often be eliminated with a stroke of a pen by a country's chief executive. Even the more sophisticated reforms, like introducing electronic filing, or using software to guide sensible risk-based customs inspections, require only small outlays. What's more, such reforms increase the interception of smuggled goods and discourage corrupt customs officials.

Always tempting to think that improving trade and reducing transactions costs will help poor countries immediately. But....what if they don't want to be helped, or act like they don't? Bureaucratic jobs confer status, and a chance to extort money. Hard to negotiate around that, when the claim that "we will find you another job" rings hollow. So, customs "officials" kill trade, and prevent wealth, in spite of the best intentions.

(nod to Katie at CV)