Agence France Presse | Sept. 11, 2003
CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) - WTO ministers groped for consensus on key issues holding up a new global trade accord as activists mourned the suicide of a South Korean anti-WTO protester.
Delegates from the 146-member World Trade Organization moved ahead with a plenary session and closed door consultations, as well as preparations for welcoming Cambodia and Nepal as new members, undeterred by violent street protests during which a South Korean protester stabbed himself to death.
Around 150 South Korean militants gathered near the barrier where 55-year-old Lee Kyang Hae took his life to protest what he and other militants contend is the damage being done to peasant farmers the world over by the WTO's corporation-friendly policies.
They vowed to commemorate his death through further protest.
"It was an act of protest, it was an act of desperation," said Sohi Jeon, coordinator of South Korean protests here of the suicide.
South Korean militants were among several thousand anti-WTO demonstrators who have converged on this glittering Caribbean resort in hopes of derailing the negotiations under way at a beach-front convention center.
Under heavy police security measures, delegates embarked on a second day of contacts aimed at moving the Doha Development Agenda for free trade, adopted in the Qatari capital Doha, off dead center.
While there are several roadblocks here, the most intensive debate has focused on agriculture and in particular the pace and scope of proposed measures to reduce government assistance to farmers.
Trade distorting agricultural subsidies in rich nations, which cripple the ability of developing country farmers to compete on world markets, cost poor nations an estimated 350 billion dollars a year, according to the World Bank.
Delegations were Thursday conferring with Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo Yong-Bong, the designated "facilitator" for agriculture here.
It will be his job to propose a text encompassing -- as far as possible -- the disparate positions of the WTO membership.
The debate has split the conference into several camps. While the United States and the European Union have pledged to work for the reduction of subsidies, they are still far apart on how quickly such measures should be implemented.
Two other alliances, the 17-member Cairns group of agricultural exporters led by Australia and the Group of 21 developing countries headed by Brazil, China and India, are pressing for deeper and faster cuts in subsidies.
The stakes in the debate are high, as it is now apparent that with no agreement on agriculture the Doha agenda is dead.
Australia and several other members of the Cairns group have warned they will walk away from the current round of talks if their demands are ignored.
Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier on Thursday appealed for give-and-take in the discussions, insisting that Washington was prepared to abolish export subsidies, reduce its direct assistance to farmers and open its markets further if its key trading partners did likewise.
"We and the European Union, even though we have different perspectives on a number of issues, will continue to work with each other to find common ground.
"All of us are going to have to make compromises."
Both the United States and the EU are cool to the proposal of the Group of 21, which is seen by the European delegation as far too radical.
The EU, determined to preserve the character of its rural communities, is rejecting calls from the Group of 21 for the elimination of export subsidies.
Allgeier said that the United States was "perplexed" by the group's position. "It's really unclear to us what the unifying principle is among those countries."Agence France Presse:
