[kvm_mkdb]

The meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancun has collapsed as the representatives of 21 poor countries withdrew in protest, demanding the end of farm subsidies.

The rich countries promised at previous trade talks to stop anti-competitive practices such as agricultural subsidies designed to prevent poor countries from competing with rich countries in world markets. These promises were conditional on huge compromises by the poor countries, all of which were made, but the rich countries never kept their side of the agreement. The US and the EU refused even to discuss these issues, which are the most important facing poor countries, at the Cancun talks.

Before any of the topics concerning poor countries could be discussed, the US and the EU demanded that poor countries sign a competition treaty which would effectively put the governments of developing countries under the control of Western corporations and banks.

The world's richest nations, especially America and in Europe, deliberately pay their farmers to produce too far much food at artificially low prices to prevent the world's poorest farmers from being able to compete. The European Union spends half of its entire budget on unnecessary and unethical anti-competitive subsidies.

The people in rich countries do not benefit from the unfair trade practices implemented by their leaders - in fact it is the public who have to pay for it. The average family pays $1,000 each year in taxes to the world's most wealthy farmers, while farmers in poor countries farmers suffer in poverty.

The United States alone pays its corn farmers $10bn a year, encouraging them to produce a surplus that is then dumped on to world markets at artificially low prices.

An interesting analysis on how trade protectionism exploits vulnerable economies:
http://pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_r...p;report_id=69

The official website of the Cancun Conference:
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/..._e/min03_e.htm

Reuter articles on the trade talk collapse:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=3445848
http://www.forbes.com/business/newsw...tr1081181.html

[voodoo]

I agree that the farming subsidies in the EU have to stop. There is a problem with that though since these subsidies are the glue of the Union.

[Developer]

Originally posted by voodoo:
I agree that the farming subsidies in the EU have to stop.

I agree. It's grotesque.

[Troll]

What is encouraging is that finally the South is standing up for itself. For a long time I've hoped the South would take a more militant approach to this sort of thing. I would still like to see the South pull the plug. Things are getting worse and worse for them. Globalisation is just another form of colonialism and the global economy is still structured in ways that prevent them from moving forwards. They need to bite the bullet - tell the North that they are going to follow traditional development models by relying on fossil fuels. They will build coal plants, cut down trees - all of the things the North did to get where they are today. They will not pay back any of the loans they owe and will nationalise all Northern assets as damages for years of abuse by the North. That'll set them back 50 years and it'll probably cause much hardship, but quitting the system seems the only option right now.

The North continues to pursue unsustainable development while making sustainable development a condition for loans to the South. It continues to subsidise its own farmers while demanding that developing nations open their markets. It imposes environmental conditions on loans that the North itself doesn't respect. The same practices that the US and EU governments sue Microsoft for, they perpetrate in the global economy. People are dying because of these policies.

I don't mind if the North wants to preserve their environments by subsidising farmers. If British consumers want to pay more for beef because they like seeing cows in the country, by all means. If Americans want expensive rice so farmers can drive late model SUV's, fine. And if that means closing their markets, okay. But what really gets my goat is the fact that they demand that other countries break down trade barriers by holding them hostage to loans and then they wipe out those countries agricultural industries with their subsidised produce when those countries agree. Right now it's not just about protecting their own markets; it's about destroying markets in the developing world. US and EU governments must pay for the subsidies, not pass on the bulk of the cost onto the developing nations by dumping the produce they bought from their farmers.

[kvm_mkdb]

Originally posted by Troll:
What is encouraging is that finally the South is standing up for itself...

I agree, thanks for the thoughtful contribution.

I posted this also because I would like to hear what the more 'conservative' members think about the issue.