Yes, we have bananas. We just can't ship them.

Tim Harford, featured on this blog before, has an excellent op-ed in today's IHT.

While there is a moral imperative to reduce them, all the ills of the world will not be solved by reducing tariffs on agricultural goods.  There are still far too many internal barriers to trade in the world's poorest countries.

The Group of 20, composed of developing countries like Argentina, Brazil, China and India, has been pushing hardest of all for an end to rich countries' agricultural subsidies and tariffs. Paradoxically, some of the most vocal members of the group impose regulatory barriers that are just as crippling to exporters in their own countries.