In The News

Protesters Swarm the Streets at W.T.O. Forum in Cancún

Ginger Thompson September 14, 2003
Developing nations lost the trade battle this weekend in the WTO talks, as richer countries pushed through a proposal that kept most of the 3 billion dollars worth of agricultural subsidies intact. Defending the subsidies, which nations in Africa and Latin America consider akin to "dumping practices" and which the US and EU states call necessary, wealthier nations called on groups such...

Lonely at the Top

Clyde Prestowitz September 13, 2003
Although the US experienced an outpouring of sympathy from much of the world after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, over the past two years it has encountered much resistance to its leadership on issues from Iraq to free trade. The US has lost any goodwill it received after the attacks, says former Reagan administration official and author Clyde Prestowitz, because Washington has pursued a...

African Nations Press for an End to Cotton Subsidies in the West

Elizabeth Becker September 12, 2003
Agricultural subsidies continue to be the keyword for the current round of WTO talks in Cancun. Cotton has become the symbol of the debate, with four African nations who depend on the crop for 10% of their gross domestic products claim the combined 4 billion dollars worth of subsidies provided by the EU and the US to their cotton farmers keep prices below cost. Unsubsidized farmers can not...

Agriculture on the Table at Trade Talks in Mexico

Kevin Sullivan September 10, 2003
Protesters gathered yesterday around the heavily guarded convention center in Cancun where the latest WTO meeting is taking place. The agricultural subsidies of developed countries is at the top of many representatives' agenda. Negotiators from Mexico to Australia are arguing that the US and the European Union's agricultural subsidies hurt their farmers by 'artificially'...

In Search of a Grand Vision for World Trade

Ernesto Zedillo September 10, 2003
Agricultural subsidies are expected to be the main stumbling block at this week's WTO meeting in Cancun. As developing countries try to stop the agricultural policies that former president of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo calls nothing less than disguised "dumping", developed countries – notably the US and the EU – continue to offer only mildly progressive reforms. On the other hand,...

Western Farmers Fear Third-World Challenge to Subsidies

Elizabeth Becker September 9, 2003
‘French fries’ might have been replaced by ‘freedom fries’, and American tourists may have disappeared from the Eiffel Tower, but France and the US can still find some common ground at the upcoming WTO talks in Cancun. Farmers from both nations count on farm subsidies to supplement their incomes and drive down their costs. $300 billion are given by the world’s richest states to their farmers....

The Myth of Localism

George Monbiot September 9, 2003
Some delegates at the world trade talks claim to defend the interests of the poor but actually promote policies that are detrimental to developing countries, says British environmentalist and author George Monbiot in The Guardian. A proposal of particular danger, Monbiot argues, is localization, which advocates that everything that can be produced locally should be produced locally. Proponents...