Whistle Ass / George Bush 2004

WTO Hypocrisy

"...At the talks in Cancun, in Mexico, Lamy made the poor nations an offer that they couldn't possibly accept. He appears to have been seeking to resurrect, by means of an "investment treaty", the infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investment. This was a proposal that would have allowed corporations to force a government to remove any laws that interfered with their ability to make money, and that was crushed by a worldwide revolt in 1998.
In return for granting corporations power over governments, the poor nations would receive precisely nothing. The concessions on farm subsidies that Lamy was offering amounted to little more than a reshuffling of the money paid to European farmers. They would continue to permit the subsidy barons of Europe to dump their artificially cheap produce into the poor world, destroying the livelihoods of the farmers there..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1042796,00.html

Cancun WTO trade talks fail: Poorer nations refuse to sign deal that offers only timid cuts to farm subsidies

"...'The talks ran out of steam because, for the first time in WTO history, developing countries refused to let the United States and Europe steer negotiations to suit their interests, said Ottawa trade consultant Peter Clark.
A new "G22" bloc of developing countries led by Brazil -- and backed by China, a growing economic powerhouse that recently joined the WTO -- emerged as an immovable object to the usually unstoppable force of will that is Washington and Brussels. African, Pacific Rim and Caribbean countries also banded together in an informal alliance. "This signals that developing countries are tired of negotiations being stage-managed and having deals imposed on them," Mr. Clark said..."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20030915/RTRAD15/TPInternational/Americas