World poor to continue suffering
Aug 23, 2006
The poverty and suffering of millions of the world’s poorest farmers shackled by unfair trade rules will continue following suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round of development talks on July 24.
The poverty and suffering of millions of the world’s poorest farmers shackled by unfair trade rules will continue following suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round of development talks on July 24.
The so-called Doha Development Round of talks was launched in 2001 with promises to poor countries to redress imbalances in world trade. The Doha Development Round was primarily to correct the rigid rules and practices that allow rich countries to capture nearly 70% of world trade flows worth $20.6 trillion, while poor and developing countries (that represent 81% of the world’s people) contribute only 30%. Of this 30%, Africa contributes just 2.6% to world trade. Five years later, rich countries have left a trail of broken promises, leaving farmers in abject poverty.
The US, European Union (EU) and other rich countries promised to cut harmful agricultural subsidies and tariffs in order to give developing countries a fairer chance to benefit from world trade.
This was supposed to be a core to a “development round†focused on redressing imbalances of world trade in order to help poor countries.
However, not only did the rich countries fail to keep their promises, they began to put a lot of pressure on developing countries to make concessions, particularly in industrial market access.
The rich countries began playing a game of tit-for-tat – we will only give you what we promised if you give us lots (more) in return.
Developing countries were being asked to trade away their future development for minimal concessions in agriculture with no guarantee of the right to protect small farmers or food security. The rich countries were offering too little and asking for too much, too fast.
Developed countries have highly-protective tariff walls for their markets and pay huge amounts of subsidies to their farmers, resulting into the dumping of products like sugar, cotton, rice and maize on world markets.
These subsidies drive down prices. This is evident in the cotton sub-sector in Uganda. Our farmers continue to receive less for their produce due to subsidised cotton surplus dumped onto the world market by the US.
In ironic contrast to the promises made to cut these trade-distorting subsidies, the EU and US offers in the Doha round would have allowed the EU to increase their subsidy payments from $22.9b to $36b and the US from $19.6b to $22.5b.
In 2002/03, market prices of cotton went from sh700 a kilogramme to sh300. The Government subsidised the cotton price with sh50 that season.
The 20,000 cotton farmers in the US will receive government payments (support) for 2005 equivalent to the market value of the crop and more than its aid to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Oxfam GB in Uganda is looking to the EU and the US to make amends. Irrespective of when talks resume, rich countries must end dumping. This should not only be achieved by ending export subsidies but by ending all trade-distorting subsidies that lead to dumping, especially of cotton.
The cost of delay is too big and the potential for development too great for these talks to be left to wither on the vine.
However, re-starting the Doha Development Round talks would be difficult if developed countries continue to deny developing countries the right to use the available flexibilities as they liberalise their markets at their own pace and scale.
Developing countries like Uganda should get 100% duty-free quota-free access to markets in developed countries without being forced to open their own markets to the EU. This must be accompanied by reforming non-tariff barriers such as the overly complex “rules of origin†or sanitary and phytosanitary measures that work to exclude poor countries’ exports to the EU.
The EU and the US must also agree to a meaningful aid-for-trade, made up of new money and with no strings attached.
The writer is the
programme officer of trade at Oxfam GB in Uganda
The so-called Doha Development Round of talks was launched in 2001 with promises to poor countries to redress imbalances in world trade. The Doha Development Round was primarily to correct the rigid rules and practices that allow rich countries to capture nearly 70% of world trade flows worth $20.6 trillion, while poor and developing countries (that represent 81% of the world’s people) contribute only 30%. Of this 30%, Africa contributes just 2.6% to world trade. Five years later, rich countries have left a trail of broken promises, leaving farmers in abject poverty.
The US, European Union (EU) and other rich countries promised to cut harmful agricultural subsidies and tariffs in order to give developing countries a fairer chance to benefit from world trade.
This was supposed to be a core to a “development round†focused on redressing imbalances of world trade in order to help poor countries.
However, not only did the rich countries fail to keep their promises, they began to put a lot of pressure on developing countries to make concessions, particularly in industrial market access.
The rich countries began playing a game of tit-for-tat – we will only give you what we promised if you give us lots (more) in return.
Developing countries were being asked to trade away their future development for minimal concessions in agriculture with no guarantee of the right to protect small farmers or food security. The rich countries were offering too little and asking for too much, too fast.
Developed countries have highly-protective tariff walls for their markets and pay huge amounts of subsidies to their farmers, resulting into the dumping of products like sugar, cotton, rice and maize on world markets.
These subsidies drive down prices. This is evident in the cotton sub-sector in Uganda. Our farmers continue to receive less for their produce due to subsidised cotton surplus dumped onto the world market by the US.
In ironic contrast to the promises made to cut these trade-distorting subsidies, the EU and US offers in the Doha round would have allowed the EU to increase their subsidy payments from $22.9b to $36b and the US from $19.6b to $22.5b.
In 2002/03, market prices of cotton went from sh700 a kilogramme to sh300. The Government subsidised the cotton price with sh50 that season.
The 20,000 cotton farmers in the US will receive government payments (support) for 2005 equivalent to the market value of the crop and more than its aid to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Oxfam GB in Uganda is looking to the EU and the US to make amends. Irrespective of when talks resume, rich countries must end dumping. This should not only be achieved by ending export subsidies but by ending all trade-distorting subsidies that lead to dumping, especially of cotton.
The cost of delay is too big and the potential for development too great for these talks to be left to wither on the vine.
However, re-starting the Doha Development Round talks would be difficult if developed countries continue to deny developing countries the right to use the available flexibilities as they liberalise their markets at their own pace and scale.
Developing countries like Uganda should get 100% duty-free quota-free access to markets in developed countries without being forced to open their own markets to the EU. This must be accompanied by reforming non-tariff barriers such as the overly complex “rules of origin†or sanitary and phytosanitary measures that work to exclude poor countries’ exports to the EU.
The EU and the US must also agree to a meaningful aid-for-trade, made up of new money and with no strings attached.
The writer is the
programme officer of trade at Oxfam GB in Uganda