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REGIONAL PRODUCERS SIDELINED AS BIG NATIONS DOMINATE, AND SINK, DOHA ROUND.

Article Excerpt
A July 24 World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, whose aim was to restart the so-called Doha Round, ended in failure, smashing the hopes of less-developed countries of making some headway against the developed countries on issues of agriculture and trade. The hopeful then turned toward Brazil, where on Sept. 9 a meeting of the G-20 countries held the possibility of agreement leading to resumption of WTO talks, but there again the outlook was bleak. Central American and Caribbean producers, along with small countries around the world, remain vulnerable to ruin, unable to compete with the heavily subsidized agricultural products of rich nations.

The July gathering featured meetings on the fine print of agricultural negotiations, sanitary measures, and mechanisms for resolution of differences. But for defenders of regional interests, those were not the real issues. Jose Talantino, director of the Fundacion para el Desarrollo (FUNDE) of El Salvador, said what was on the table was "opening the US and European markets without questioning their agricultural policies. With this scheme, there can be no progress. What is lacking is the political will by the US and Europe for this opening to be genuine."

The situation left Federico Steinberg of the department of economic analysis of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM) to posit three possible outcomes from this point:

1. Cutting agricultural protections with modest tariff reductions and aid measures to the developing...

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