Development talks fail
International development agency Christian Aid says the blame for the collapse of the latest Doha Development Round talks in Geneva lies squarely with major agricultural exporting countries putting self-interest above other considerations according to a report in Ekklesia.
The talks were supposed to result in a deal that would help poorer countries develop through trade.
Central to the collapse was the failure to agree to a generous Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), which would have enabled developing countries to impose or raise tariffs to protect their poor and vulnerable farmers from surges of agricultural imports.
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While pushing for greater market access for their industrial products in developing countries, rich countries, particularly the United States and the European Union resisted calls to reduce the enormous subsidies that they hand out to agricultural producers.This ‘domestic support’ is one of the main barriers to developing countries having a chance to trade their way out of poverty, for it funds cheaper agricultural produce against which farmers in poorer countries cannot compete.
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