The outcomes of last week’s G8 summit were obscured by the 2012 Olympics decision and the horrific London bombings. This is regrettable. The politicians, protesters and NGOs wanting to 'Make Poverty History' had put forward an agenda that some libertarians and ASI personnel could put their names to (indeed, some of them have urged it for years).

Cancellation of debt is one example. We can spare the money, and it is cripplingly expensive for the innocent debtors. Yes to more and better aid, preferably targeted directly at disease, famine and dirty water, as opposed to government to government grants so easily siphoned off to those famous Swiss bank accounts. And, last but by no means least, is the call for trade justice.

Let us just be absolutely clear on the meaning and importance of this term. It is the most important. Trade justice means free trade, not subsidy, tariffs or government support for any foreign or domestic industry. It is Western insistence on subsidising their inefficient farmers and agro-businesses that helps sustain persistent poverty in Africa. It is the EU’s insistence on dumping its subsidized surplus in developing countries, pricing locals out of the market, which sustains persistent poverty. And it is the massive import tariffs on agricultural goods into the EU that prolongs the unacceptable poverty and hunger suffered in Africa. It is because the French have been particularly culpable in these respects that the Olympic victory seemed all the more appropriate.

Justice in trade does not mean subsidy or any other governmental or international support for African industry. It does not mean establishing a pan-African common agricultural policy, or undoing any of the good work of the WTO. Trade justice means scrapping the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and the American and Japanese equivalents. It means ceasing subsidy to our farming sectors, scrapping ridiculously unfair trade tariffs, and perhaps most urgently, ceasing the grotesque practice of dumping.

Libertarians care for Africans, as they care for all of humankind, but they do not care for inefficient government interference or muddled incompetence. We should help Africa to compete in a fair and global market place and let their economies grow naturally and sustainably. We’ll see then whose produce we buy.