New York Times | By Elizabeth Becker and Ginger Thompson | Sept. 10, 2003
The world trade talks began here today with the developing nations mounting a quiet revolt in the name of their farmers.
With China standing among them, a group of 21 countries demanded that their proposal to cut rich nations" farm subsidies be debated at the World Trade Organization talks this week and not be shunted aside through a parliamentary procedure.
Flexing their collective muscle in a setting normally dominated by the United States and Europe, the world's biggest subsidizers of farmers, the group said it would not be silenced.
"It is absolutely an imperative that this paper is taken as a basis for discussion," said Celso Amorim, the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs and a spokesman for the group.
Those countries together represent a majority of the world's farmers, and a majority of the world's population. They pointed out that their quest for lower farm subsidies and tariffs had become the cause of the moment, much like debt relief was several years ago.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, the director general of the W.T.O. and an economist from Thailand, said he was pleased that more than one agricultural proposal was on the table and that procedures would not get in the way of negotiations.
"This is very conducive for the development agenda," Mr. Panitchpakdi said.
As a reminder of the passions evoked by farming, a protest by about 7,000 Mexican farmers a few miles away turned violent when a few dozen people pushed down a chain-link barricade and began hitting police officers with sticks and pieces of concrete.
At least 10 protesters and a dozen police officers were injured in the clashes. One rice farmer, who wore a sign that read "The WTO kills farmers," stabbed himself in the chest and died at a local hospital.
According a glossy handout that he distributed at the march, Kyung-hae Lee, the farmer, was 56 and a former president of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation. He said he had tried to organize opposition to economic forces he described as "waves that destroyed our lovely rural communities." But he said he had failed, "like many other farm leaders elsewhere."
Imports, he said, were cheaper than domestic goods and soon his income did not cover his costs. And farmers, he said, were forced to go work in urban slums.
"I am crying out the words to you that have boiled so long time inside my body," his note said.
Most protesters condemned the violence and abandoned the march.
Throughout the day, senior ministers held a "flurry" of private meetings with the bloc of developing nations, said a spokesman for Europe, seeking a compromise to move forward when serious negotiations begin Thursday.
Last month, the United States and Europe presented their own plan that became the foundation for the debate. But the proposal ignored many concerns of the developing world, so the group of developing nations pushed a counterproposal. It became so popular that the group expanded from 17 to 21 nations in days, with Egypt as the latest member.
Pascal Lamy, the top trade minister for Europe, said it would be an "error" to conclude that a new confrontation was developing between rich and poor nations.
Robert B. Zoellick, the United States trade representative, said at the opening session that the United States was willing to cut farm subsidies if other countries also did. He also alluded to the growing wave of protectionist sentiment in the United States, especially as the American trade deficit continues to balloon, and said he hoped all delegates recognized the political realities.
"We're all going to have to compromise," he said.
International institutions like the World Bank have provided the data to explain how the $300 billion that rich countries give farmers each year helps undermine millions of farmers in the developing world.
"Just saying they won't back down and promising to stay united is unprecedented," said Ben Lilleston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, referring to the developing nations.
With agriculture the pivotal issue for this round of trade talks, the ministers from those countries in effect are warning the W.T.O. that they could block progress on new agreements if they are ignored.
Among the most influential of the 21 developing countries are Brazil, India, Thailand, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, Chile, Pakistan and South Africa. In the world of trade, most developing countries should have an advantage in agrculture, because their production, land and labor costs are low. But farming is now the most protected sector of the economies of the world's richest countries. In addition to farm subsidies, the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries maintain high agricultural tariffs that block imports and spend millions of dollars subsidizing their food exports.
Many exports are sold below cost, undermining the ability of the world's poor farmers to sell their products at home or as exports.
That struggle has drawn the attention of rock stars and advocacy groups.
At a news conference held by the Group of 21 countries here, Jonathon Buckland, the guitar player with the rock group Coldplay, presented the trade ministers with a supersized version of the groups' CD called "Make Trade Fair."New York Times:
