By Patrick Nicholson
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, in Cancun
When the news of the collapse of WTO talks at
reached the conference centre, many campaigners
Some rejoiced at the WTO collapse
But I take no pleasure in the failure of the
WTO to resurrect the so-called Doha development
A deal at Cancun that reflected the concerns of
developing countries could have lifted millions of
people out of poverty.
The World Bank estimated that
144 million people in the Third World would benefit
from the new round of trade talks.
A fair deal for the poor would have had to involve
the EU and US accepting some painful concessions.
Their system of supporting their farmers with
per year is a scandal.
Farm subsidies lead to dumping
of cheap goods on Third World markets, destroying
livelihoods of poor farmers.
But failure at Cancun has dashed prospects of farm
reform. The WTO and the multi-lateral trading
it represents are now in crisis.
The blame game has already begun, and the EU must
bear a large burden of the guilt.
Patrick Nicholson saw the talks hit a brick wall
on pushing the WTO members to start negotiations on
the "new issues" of investment, competition,
government procurement, and trade facilitation
effectively caused the talks to break up.
The "new issues" are all very obscure - and that is the
That a deal on agriculture was sacrificed
them is hard to accept, as they were always a
diversion from the real issue.
Over 100 countries had categorically stated that they did
not even want to talk about the new issues until a deal
on agriculture had been struck.
When that did not
happen in Cancun, the talks hit a brick wall.
So what next?
The possibility of progress back at WTO headquarters in Geneva looks bleak.
The future of the WTO is looking increasingly uncertain
And with the
countries turning more and more to bilateral deals,
developing countries will be in even weaker
to get fair trade rules.
The WTO must not be allowed to fade into
Developed and developing countries a like face a
task in rescuing the WTO from impending doom.
will depend on the WTO members coming up with fair
trade rules - ones that enable poor countries to
develop while allowing the global economy to