The Atlanta Journal and Constitution | By SUSAN FERRISS | September 14, 2003
Cancun, Mexico --- Representatives of developing countries lashed out Saturday at the United States and the European Union, declaring that a draft World Trade Organization declaration fails to change trade policies that harm millions of farmers around the world.
The ministerial WTO meeting at this seaside resort ends today. A chief goal was to start setting a calendar for reducing massive European, U.S. and Japanese farm subsidies blamed for ruining farmers in developing countries.
"The text of this draft is so far from our expectations. But we will do our best to save this meeting," said Haitian trade representative Hegel Goutier, speaking for a 92-country bloc of some of the poorest African, Caribbean and Asian nations.
Goutier said many representatives of the 148 WTO nations were disillusioned because they believed wealthy countries were reneging on a commitment to reduce subsidies that push down world market prices for grains, cotton and other products also produced in poor countries.
Wealthy European nations and the United States, Goutier said, had "centuries to get rich. They had colonies. They had slaves. They had the industrial revolution with no workers' rights."
The poorer countries, he said, expected that Cancun's meeting would produce an agreement with more "precise" dates and proposed percentage reductions for subsidies. The draft statement circulated Saturday evening fails to include a calendar or proposed percentage reductions, instead suggesting that many details be left for negotiations six months away in Geneva.
Global aid group Oxfam, one of thousands of nongovernmental agencies holding a parallel conference here, dismissed the WTO's draft statement as a "repackaging exercise that would do little or nothing to stop the export dumping that helps keep 900 million small farmers poor."
U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Peter Allgeier suggested the United States was willing to reduce support to farm producers in conjunction with European and other nations with higher subsidies:
"The United States remains committed to achieving an elimination of export subsidies, to significant cuts in domestic subsidies, in the context of those who have higher levels of subsidies harmonizing down to lower levels."
Allgeier also said the United States was committed to "real market access, which we are prepared to provide in our market if others are prepared to do that in their markets."
The WTO is a consortium of countries developing a common set of rules for lowering barriers to trade, investment and the sale of services among 148 member nations. Tension within the organization has increased, with blocs of countries forming and accusing the wealthy countries of intransigence.
In 1999 the WTO met in Doha, Qatar, and set goals for using trade to address poor nations' development needs.
"We had a lot of hope after Doha," said Gautier. "A lot of people were thinking the new world would be a more human world."
While delegates struggled over the draft text, trying to find consensus, thousands of protesters tied ropes to police barricades and toppled them.
South Korean farmers led the protest and called for a moment of silence to commemorate a South Korean farmer who committed suicide Wednesday to protest the WTO.
In South Korea, Mexico and other countries, farmers contend that tariff cuts are hurting them by forcing them to compete with rich countries.The Atlanta Journal and Constitution:
