Trade: What's the smartest SDG target?

As reported today in for instance India's Economic Times, The Japan Times and Germany's Die Welt, implementing the Doha Development Agenda will make the world $500 trillion dollars richer and by 2030 lift a staggering 160 million more people out of extreme poverty.

Every dollar spent will do thousands of dollars worth of good. Expanding free trade would also dampen price spikes in food markets, contributing to better outcomes for hunger and nutrition. It would increase wealth in the developing world reducing inequality among nations. It would spur economic growth, which is correlated to a number of important development indicators such as lower crime, better governance and improved health.
 
Furthermore, a disproportionate amount of the benefits will go to developing countries. By 2030, the world will be $11 trillion better off each year, and $7 trillion will go to the developing world. On average, the increased GDP is equivalent to $1,000 more for every person in the developing world in 2030.
 
Therefore, the paper argues, expanding free trade may be the most valuable post-2015 development target we can envisage.

Implementing free trade is not costless. It will cost about $300 billion in supporting the losers of liberalization in unemployment benefits and re-schooling, along with negotiating expenses and reform advocacy. But these, mainly one-off costs, are small in comparison to the ongoing stream of benefits.
 
So if the economic case is clear, why isn’t it implemented? Because the anticipated losses in jobs and wealth are very obvious and concentrated, whereas the gains are thinly spread and less-easily identifiable. The few losers are prepared to support politicians who resist protection cuts, while the gains are sufficiently small per person that they do not act collectively to lobby for reform.

You can read all the papers on trade here and download the one page PDF here.