In a report published today(December 6), a week before the World Trade Organisation ministerial opens in Hong Kong, the international development agency ActionAid warns that developing countries will be trapped in poverty if they are denied the right to protect their economies against international competition. The report 'TRADE INVADERS: the WTO and Developing Countries' Right to Protect' looks at the downside of free trade policies and economic liberalisation. ActionAid's case studies - from Brazil, the Gambia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa - describe how, time after time, farmers have been ruined and factories closed down as cheap goods from abroad flooded in after trade barriers were lifted.