Christian relief and development agency Tearfund has expressed disappointment at the collapse of trade talks in Cancun. The talks broke down as rich nations failed to heed the concerns of the poor at this the latest meeting of the 146-member World Trade Organisation (WTO).
A refusal by rich countries to cut harmful agricultural subsidies and drop attempts to expand the WTO agenda to include additional issues before delivering on existing ones, were the major fault lines.
“We are disappointed that rich countries failed to seize this opportunity to take steps to tackle the injustice that lies at the heart of world trade rules,” says Mari Griffith, Tearfund’s Trade Campaigns Officer. “The true agenda of the European Union and the United States has been exposed at the Cancun talks - plenty of rhetoric on making trade fairer but precious little action,” says Mari Griffith.
Two years into the WTO’s ‘Development Round’, which pledges to ‘place the needs and interests’ of developing countries at the heart of its work, signs of a better deal for developing countries are scarce. “What happened to the Development Round? It’s virtually impossible to find any evidence of progress for the millions of people who live in grinding poverty,” says Mari Griffith.
A glimmer of hope to rise from the Cancun talks is the strengthened voice of developing nations, as demonstrated by a new grouping of 21 developing nations, called the G21, and led by Brazil, China and India. Ironically the collapse of the Cancun talks may lead to the recognition that there needs to be more realistic trade negotiations between rich and poor nations.
“The resolve shown by developing countries to stand their ground is the most significant shift in the balance of power in trade negotiations for years and one that could herald much needed reform of the WTO,” says Mari Griffith. ”What’s needed now is renewed effort to move forward with genuine negotiation between rich and poor nations.”
Much needed reform of the WTO is the crucial next step, reform that genuinely tackles poverty and brings transparency and democracy to the negotiation process. “Chipping away at the current trade rules will only get us so far. Now is the time to turn the current system on its head and put tackling poverty, not trade liberalisation, as the primary goal,” says Mari Griffith.
The United Nations estimates that if trade rules were reworked in favour of poor countries, they could reap benefits of up to $700 billion a year - a massive 14 times what is currently received in aid and 30 times the amount of debt repayments by poor countries.