The Poverty Impacts of the Doha Round and the Role of Tax Policy: A Case Study for Cameroon

We use a CGE microsimulation model to assess the poverty impacts for Cameroon of the Doha round, as well as more ambitious world and domestic trade liberalization, paying particular attention to the choice of replacement tax. Doha Agreements remove roughly 43,000 people from poverty in Cameroon. More ambitious world trade liberalization brings down the number of poor by 308,000 individuals. However, Cameroon's own liberalization has strong adverse impacts, increasing the number of poor by over a million. Combined world and domestic liberalization thus increases poverty, especially when lost tariff revenues are compensated by a consumption tax rather than a VAT.