World trade talks in Cancun collapsed Sunday after rich countries refused to slash billions of dollars of subsidies they give to their farmers and rather pressed poor states to negotiate "Singapore issues", including new rules on foreign investment, competition and government procurement.
Poor states complained that trade laws were already rigged against them and unless developed countries agree to cut tariffs and open markets, trade liberalisation will not be meaningful, according to AFP, Reuters, BSS and BBC News Online.
They fear that a new international investment trade regime would benefit multilateral corporations and open their industries to control by foreign multinationals.
However, trade ministers agreed to reconvene in Geneva by December 15 to see whether the talks could be revived. But the deal to provide cheap medicines to developing countries -- which health agencies view 'too complicated' -- will still go through.
The LDCs (least developed countries) said the group could not accept any trade deal that did not provide for free access of their exports to the rich countries with a timeline for its implementation.
Bangladesh Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, also coordinator of 49 LDCs, told the five-day meet that the LDCs would want special safeguard measures without conditions or limitations on product coverage for protecting their domestic agriculture.
There is now a danger that the talks failure could hasten the formation of regional trading blocs and country-to-country deals, which will hit the poorest nations hardest.
The breakdown of talks was the biggest defeat for trade liberalisation since a chaotic meeting in Seattle in 1999 was rocked by violent street protests and a similar revolt by poor countries.
Some countries criticised the meeting's chairman, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernest Derbies, for pulling the plug too quickly as some progress was reported on the thorny issue of massive EU and US subsidies to domestic farmers.
The US said too many countries were unwilling to make concessions. The US trade representative at the Cancun talks, Robert Zoellick, said the collapse had been caused by too many delegates pontificating, rather than negotiating.
"The differences were very wide, and it was impossible to close the gap," said Kenyan delegate George Odour Ongwen.
And EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said: "There are only losers, in the same way that everyone would have emerged as a winner if we had been able to reach agreement at Cancun."
Poor nations boasted they had scored a political victory in proving they would no longer be bullied into a bad deal by the dominant trading powers, the United States and Europe.
For once, a coalition of developing countries, led by Brazil, China and India, worked as a bloc to counter-balance the weight of the much richer US, EU and Japan.
"It was not possible to get a concrete result," said Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, "but we think that we have achieved some important things: firstly, the respect for our group."
The deadlocks centred on the four so-called "Singapore issues", pushed by Japan and the European Union, which were first proposed at an earlier meeting in 1998.
The four issues are: How countries treat foreign investors, standards for anti-monopoly and cartel laws, greater transparency in government purchasing, which might help foreign companies win public sector business and trade facilitation, making things like customs procedures simpler.
The issues were passed to Cancun from delegates at the last WTO meeting in Qatar because they were contentious.
Developing countries balked at including these issues in the trade talks, especially investment rules, arguing that the complexity of negotiating in completely new areas would leave them at a disadvantageous position compared to the rich countries who would be able to take advantage of their greater technical expertise.
"We have always alerted people that unless they listen to the developing countries... this is what will happen," said Malaysia's trade minister, Rafidah Aziz.
US and EU negotiators complained that Brazil, India and other key developing countries had brought more rhetoric than proposals to the negotiating table.
They also said it would now be very tough to meet the WTO's own deadline for a comprehensive reform in world trade by the end of 2004. The World Bank says a good accord could add $520 billion to world incomes by 2015 and lift 144 million people out of poverty.
But Ugandan delegate Yasphal Tondon said: "The blame for the collapse must go to the Western countries, because they insisted on putting their issues first."
Dave Timms of the British development lobby group, the World Development Movement, agreed. "The collapse of the talks was the only option for the developing countries -- walking out was better than the deal on the table. It is the EU that must take responsibility for the failure."
The European Union was joined by some other rich nations in pressing for new rules on investment, competition, government procurement and cutting red tape that holds up trade -- known as trade facilitation in WTO jargon.
Delighted anti-globalisation activists who oppose trade deals sang "Money can't buy the world" to the tune of the Beatles classic "Can't buy me love" and held up banners reading "We won."
For the world economy, Cancun is an opportunity lost.
"This is a huge setback. It's a setback to the WTO. It's a blow to the Doha Development round, and it's a setback for the world economy, which very badly needed a boost to confidence," said British Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
South Africa was disappointed that no concrete trade agreement was achieved at World Trade Organisation talks in Mexico, but pleased that advances were made in key areas, Trade Minister Alec Erwin said Monday.
Disappointment, elation and glimmers of dogged hope emerged from Asia's mix of rich, poor and mainly agricultural nations after world trade talks hit the rocks.
Several of Asia's poorer nations welcomed the display of developing world power that wrecked the talks.
Others mourned the breakdown that they saw delaying for far too long any progress in discussion of agricultural subsidies and thus dooming their farmers to compete with the richest.
For its part, India said the talks collapsed because developed nations failed to gauge poor countries' concerns in drafting a new multilateral trade agreement.
"The draft accord did not take into account the interest of developing countries," Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley said from the Mexican resort city.
The European Union (EU) and Japan strongly pushed the Singapore issues.
South Korea, one of the countries charged with helping to torpedo the talks by refusing to compromise, on Monday declined to comment.
South Korean farmers, waging a battle against freer trade, said the failure was a triumph for them and vowed to boost their campaign after the suicide of one of their leaders in Cancun.
Lee Kyang-Hae, 55, who had led the 120,000-member Korean Advanced Farmers Federation (KAFF), the country's biggest farmers organisation, stabbed himself to death Wednesday in an anti-WTO protest.
Australia expressed deep disappointment at the latest failure of global trade reform talks and set its sights on a controversial bilateral free-trade deal with the United States.
Thailand shrugged off the outcome, saying it would continue to focus on bilateral trade arrangements to sell its products.
Pakistani agriculture experts and business leaders hailed the breakdown of the talks, saying the meeting's agenda was suicidal for the developing countries.
"Pakistani agriculturists have opposed the World Trade Organization from the very beginning as it is suicidal for the poor countries like us," leading agriculturist Qamar-uz Zaman Shah, said.
source: http://thedailystar.net/2003/09/16/d3091601011.htm 16sep03
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