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.