Issue No. 686, 1-15 April 2019
What next after Trump threat of WTO exit?

*Click on cover to download (PDF)

US has more to lose if Trump pulls it out of WTO
In the wake of the US president’s latest threat to take his country out of the WTO, Chakravarthi Raghavan suggests that it may be time for the rest of the WTO membership to call the US bluff.

Opinion: Developing Asia needs a new economic paradigm
In light of inadequate demand and the problems of ecological damage and growing inequality, what developing Asia – and the world economy – require is a Global Green New Deal, contends Jayati Ghosh.

Opinion: Facebook and friends threaten to “Libralize” the world
Facebook’s proposed digital currency, Libra, can shake up global finance – and not necessarily for the better.
by Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Analysis: The Bretton Woods institutions and the second crisis of multilateralism
After 75 contentious years supporting expansion of the interests of the Global North with the support of elites from the Global South, the World Bank and the IMF now face a crisis of multilateralism in no small part of their own making, as failed economic policies have resulted in widespread skepticism of the effectiveness and equity of the international order they helped to shape.
by Luke Fletcher

Analysis: Food sovereignty is Africa’s only solution to climate chaos
To tackle the interconnected food and climate crises it faces, Africa needs to break its ruinous dependence on food imports and support local, agroecologically based production.
by GRAIN

Analysis: Regulating digital platforms via competition and data-based approaches
Parminder Singh calls on developing countries to take the lead in establishing the policy framework for a globally fair and just digital economy, one that is not dominated by a handful of corporate tech titans. Such a framework, he proposes, should combine competition regulation with policy that governs access to and use of the all-important digital resource, data.