The outcome of the Cancun round should not be taken as a failure, but continue with more concerted efforts to rectify the deficiencies.
The networking which has taken place during the past four days at Dubai 2003 gives a glimpse that the world at large might be willing to overlook the Cancun failure and get on with the unfinished tasks on the agenda. If so, this is quite heartening.
Discussing the fallout from the recent Cancun round of WTO talks, Nicholas Stern, the World Bank's chief economist, added that the developed and developing countries need to bring down trade barriers for a broader consensus on such issues.
Speaking about agriculture subsidies in rich countries, he said these should go "as they are politically antiquated, economically illiterate, environmentally destructive and ethically incorrect."
Stern is shortly joining as head of UP government's Economic Services. The rich countries hardly have two to three per cent of their population working in the farm sector.
Most of the subsidies have been fixed by the governments of these countries during the years when quite a substantial level of their population was engaged in farming activities, said Stern. "This makes subsidies politically antiquated." At the same time, these policies do not go well with the rural sector policies of these governments.
The potentially excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides by rich country farmers may also adversely affect the global environment. These subsidies are "ethically" incorrect at the same time, because the farm sector in Third World countries deserves more such support.
Rashid S. Kaukab, co-ordinator of the South Centre Work Programme of Geneva, said WTO member countries must learn lessons from the Cancun round. "There was no need to overload the talks by putting so many issues together on one agenda," said Kaukab. At the same time, it is not possible to ignore any of these issues.
Drawing an analogy between the WTO talks and a car race - where some are using Ferraris and Lamborghinis, while some are on bicycles or even walking barefoot - the NGO official said there is a need to have different tracks.
According to him, adjustments or compromise on trade issues like market access in textiles or agriculture by the developing countries is not easy.
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