Canada, RP criticizes rich nations for lack of deal at WTO
Canada, RP criticizes rich nations for lack of deal at WTO
Associated Press, Quebec City/Manila
Prime Minister Jean Chretien criticized rich nations Tuesday
for failing to reach a deal to reduce agriculture subsidies at
World Trade Organization talks that collapsed last week.
"When will we stop this nonsense of giving so much subsidies
that a cow in some countries gets more money than any child,"
Chretien told an international conference of chambers of
commerce.
"The peace of the world will always be more problematic
because you cannot have entire continents going down the tube
when the rest of the world is getting richer," he said.
The WTO negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, ended without
agreement Sunday due to differences between rich and poor nations
over agriculture subsidies and tariffs.
During five days of talks, ministers spent little time on what
was expected to be the main issue: agriculture. Instead, they
argued over whether to launch formal negotiations on several new
topics, including rules on foreign investment and competition.
That angered developing nations demanding a reduction in
agricultural subsidies by industrialized countries.
Chretien said industrialized countries, led by the United
States and European Union, spend six times more on agriculture
subsidies than foreign aid. The subsidies effectively cut off
agricultural markets for developing countries, he said.
"It's time we wake up," Chretien said. "We live in a global
economy, but this global economy has to contribute to the welfare
of every member of the global situation of the world."
Chretien also said global security depends in part on Africa
and other poor regions of the world developing their economies.
Access to agriculture markets in the developed world would help,
he said.
"We give them a bit of money; it doesn't replace the
opportunities if we opened our markets to them," he said.
Separately, Philippine officials on Wednesday blamed the
collapse of the WTO talks on the refusal of rich countries to
listen to the concerns of the poor.
"It was like (the voices of poor countries were) entering one
ear and going out the other ... that's what really infuriated
me," Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo told Manila DZRH radio.
"The meeting in Cancun was a debacle for the whole world,"
Foreign Secretary Blas Ople wrote in his column in the Manila
Bulletin newspaper, blaming the impasse on the selfishness of
rich countries.
Ople said the West must yield to poorer nations' demands to
remove agricultural subsidies. The U.S. and Europe must "use a
little more restraint in marrying their political clout to their
trade objectives," he said.
U.S. and European farmers receive between US$50,000 to
$100,000 a year in subsidies, compared to $13 to $20 a year per
Filipino farmer, Lorenzo said.