It looks like, once again, the rich countries have taken down the trade talks so that they can continue protecting our own markets while prizing open the markets of poor countries.
| Quote: |
WTO members called a halt to more than five years of commerce liberalization talks Monday as differences over farm aid proved unbridgeable.
Pascal Lamy, director-general of the World Trade Organization, said a deal billed as a recipe for lifting millions of people worldwide out of poverty would not be reached by the end of the year and there was no new timetable for completing the round. |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/24/AR2006072400427.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5209010.stm
The US, who pretends to be in favour of free markets internally, are anything but free traders overseas, and were responsible for taking these talks down. The EU are little better. The real losers here are the world's poor because although they produce cheaper goods, they cannot sell them because of tarrifs and subsidies of the rich countries. Definetly I agree with you. I am a nicaraguan student of Economics and believe me I see that in my everyday life. I thing the WTO forum does not actually works because always is done what the rich countries commands and when that does not happens then they just stop the talks. That has recently happened in Doha.
yes.. those poor third world countries that are typically controlled by warlords and despots.. if only the USA would give them BILLIONS of dollars in aid.. oh wait.. the US already does, and they still can't get their acts together
how about if the US lifts all the sanctions and tariffs, but also stops sending all their foreign aid? maybe that would be a better solution.. sink or swim, so to speak
| JoeFriday wrote: |
yes.. those poor third world countries that are typically controlled by warlords and despots.. if only the USA would give them BILLIONS of dollars in aid.. oh wait.. the US already does, and they still can't get their acts together
how about if the US lifts all the sanctions and tariffs, but also stops sending all their foreign aid? maybe that would be a better solution.. sink or swim, so to speak |
The US was willing to make concessions. Why wasn't anyone else? Then to blame the US for the failure?
Pathetic.
| Quote: |
The United States and the European Union have traded accusations of inflexibility on the key stumbling block of farm subsidies, while Washington insisted that developing players had to offer much more on industrial access.
...
Schwab said that even though the Doha talks are now on life support, US officials would continue their own contacts "to see if there's a way of salvaging the round going forward".
Top officials from the EU, Brazil and India lined up to accuse the United States of intransigence for not coming up with deeper cuts to the handouts it offers its farmers.
But Schwab retorted that aside from Australia, none of the other players had come up with enhanced offers to open up their markets to foreign goods.
"The United States cannot be in a position of negotiating with ourselves," she said, calling the US offer to slash its domestic farm payments by an average of 60 percent "the most ambitious out there, full stop".
As the blame game raged, leaders in Congress said Schwab and her team had been right to stick to their guns, arguing that no Doha deal was better than a flawed one.
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We should continue with bilateral free-trade talks with places like South Korea and Malaysia instead of taking the blame for the failed WTO talks.
But noooo, the US is still going to try to get everything back on track even though it's basically the only member willing to make sacrifices.I'm a big fan of JoeFriday's approach here... | JoeFriday wrote: |
| how about if the US lifts all the sanctions and tariffs, but also stops sending all their foreign aid? maybe that would be a better solution.. sink or swim, so to speak. |
For the most part, aid in the form of cash or goods usually hurts the economies it is intended to help. It destroys their own markets. For example, why would anyone pay for locally grown agricultural products if the US (and other wealthy nations) provides these items for free.
I also think the US (and other wealthy nations) need to do more to free up their own trade laws before telling poor nations to do the same. YES, economics indeed. Does no one else understand?
Also, these ‘aides’ finance the local oppressive leaders that are causing much of the trouble anyway. ‘Sweat shops’ and the like are a natural part of a growing nation. They are good for it and its people. The trouble is that the local oppressors are absorbing any progress made.
My favorite are the stupid actors that come on the tub and tell us how compassionate they are and that we need to send our $$$ to Africa.
What these countries need is the freedom and incentive to build infrastructure. ‘Aid’ along with oppression breaks all this down. The start would be education. I think the Christian missionaries have it right here, build schools and dig wells. To most of these people clean water and a roof especially with hope under it is the stuff of dreams unattainable.
