“The most obvious issue—and the one that has received the most attention—is the ongoing agricultural protection of rich countries. Japan protects rice and other markets. The United States and Europe subsidize and protect farmers. Completely liberalizing agricultural markets in rich countries would provide an immediate annual benefit to developing countries of $26 billion, according to a recent World Bank estimate. To put this number in context, it is about one-half of the annual flow of foreign aid from rich countries to poor ones. Thus, opening agricultural markets in rich countries is one important issue.
Less well publicized is the fact that opening the agricultural markets of developing countries would provide to these countries a similar—even slightly larger—gain of $28 billion per year. This gain comes partly from the fact that trade liberalization will enable each country to expand production of goods and services that the country makes efficiently and sell them at better prices. Another benefit from trade is that consumers will buy at lower prices goods and services that their country does not produce so well.”
See the entire issues, Benefits of Trade Costs of Protectionism, An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State
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