WTO Cancun Summit Meeting Collapses As Coalition of Developing Nations Rejects 'Bad Deal' on Farm Subsidies

Interview with Anuradha Mittal, co-director of Institute for Food and Development Policy or Food First, conducted by Scott Harris

The recently concluded meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico collapsed over the questions of agricultural policy and the expansion of WTO authority over new areas of commerce including investment and trade facilitation. A coalition of 21 nations formed a powerful bloc at the WTO Summit meeting, which refused to accept what they viewed as a flawed deal on phasing out the $300 billion in agricultural subsidies provided to farmers by their governments in Europe and the U.S.

Poor nations of the developing world have long condemned wealthy nations' agricultural subsidies, which they assert undercuts their own farmers' ability to compete in domestic and export markets. Removing these subsidies presents a difficult obstacle for politicians in Europe and the U.S. who are reluctant to offend powerful agribusiness interests.

The WTO's fifth ministerial in Cancun drew tens of thousands of demonstrators from all over Mexico and around the globe, who protested against free trade policies that many of them believe enriches corporations at the expense of the world's impoverished majority. Among those protesting was Lee Kyung Hae, a South Korean farm union organizer, who during a confrontation at a barricade erected by police, symbolically stabbed himself to death while wearing a sign around his neck which read, "WTO Kills Farmers." Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Anuradha Mittal, co-director with the Institute for Food and Development Policy -- or Food First -- who in an interview conducted while she was in Cancun, summarizes the policy disagreements which led to the collapse of the WTO's summit meeting.

Contact Food First by calling (510) 654-4400 or visit their website at www.foodfirst.org

Related links

* Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch at www.citizen.org/trade/

* "WTO Beached in Cancun," by Mark Weisbrot, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Sept. 16, 2003
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* "The Fence at Kilometer Zero," by Katharine Ainger, The New Internationalist, Sept. 12, 2003

* Mexico Independent Media Center (in Spanish) mexico.indymedia.org

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