Gordon Brown has identified the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy as a major cause of world poverty. In a speech to UNICEF he said that poorer countries resented "the hypocrisy of developed country protectionism." Toby Helm and George Jones report (Telegraph) his words:

We should be opening our markets and removing trade-distorting subsidies and, in particular, doing more to urgently tackle the waste of the Common Agricultural Policy by now setting a date for the end of export subsidies.

He surprised MPs by declaring his ambition to get rid of the CAP.

Mr Brown said: "Think of the Mozambican sugar producer who cannot compete with European sugar beet farmers because the subsidies Europeans receive enable them to sell more expensive goods at a cheaper price."

He is exactly right. All the pious talk of aid misses the point. Poor countries can climb out of poverty by selling their produce. The twin barriers of tariff walls and subsidies thwart them, and all the drib-drabs of aid will never alter that. They don’t want managed trade, with approved producers given artificial prices in protected markets. They want access to our markets and an end to unfair competition.

It is excellent that the Chancellor himself is saying this. Indeed, the speed with which ministers previously against the Adam Smith Institute’s position in areas such as Europe, free trade and poverty relief have leapt to endorse it is gratifying. We wish them success in their efforts to make it all happen.