1. Media release: WTO failure is a win
2. Collapse of WTO talks

1. AFTINET Media Release - 14 September 2003

WTO failure is a win

"The collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun this afternoon is a victory for developing countries and a blow against the domination of the WTO by the USA and the European Union," said Dr Patricia Ranald, convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.

"Developing countries have opened up their markets as required by the WTO since 1995, but rich countries have refused to reduce their subsidies on agricultural products.

"The Cairns Group of agricultural exporters, led by Australia, has been sidelined by the emergence of the Group of 22 Plus developing countries who have advanced a serious case for a fairer system of agricultural trade. The Australian government should listen to these demands and help to shape fairer trading rules in the aftermath of the collapse of these talks," said Dr Ranald.

For further comment: Dr Patricia Ranald in Mexico + 52 9981 208 327

AFTINET unites over 70 Australian community organisations, churches, trade unions and environment organisations.

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2. Collapse of WTO talks
by Peter Murphy, Cancun, Sept 14, 2003

The 5^th World Trade Organisation Ministerial collapsed this afternoon at 3 pm when the developing countries refused to negotiate the Singapore special issues and the Cairns Group of agricultural exporters refused to negotiate agriculture first. The Kenyan delegation then walked out.

As Ministers and negotiators from Suriname, Zimbabwe and Jamaica briefed journalists on events it became clear that these talks were over, and that there would not even be a closing ceremony.

"We are back to the Doha Development Agenda," said the Deputy Minister of Trade for Suriname. "We in the African Caribbean and Pacific countries simply could not accept the new Singapore issues of investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation. We just cannot cope with this, and we did not receive anything like what is needed on agriculture," he said.

Non-government activists from around the world burst into a rendition of "Can’t buy me love" that targeted US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick and European negotiator Pascal Lamy, and ‘bullies’. "You can’t buy the world", they sang, as an air of jubilation swept the Convention Centre.

"Most of the Latin American countries were prepared to live with the new issues, and it was the Asian countries, especially India and Malaysia, who stood firm along with the ACP," said the Jamaican Trade Minister. "But Brazil was solid all the way and rejected the new issues. This is not the end of the WTO at all. It has a lot of work to do, and what it is based on is the Doha Development Agenda, nothing new," he said.

Oxfam-CAA Executive Director Andrew Hewett blamed the US and Europe for the failure. "They must take responsibility for this failure. Developing countries rightly expected this trade round to be about development, but found to their dismay that the US and Europe wanted to keep going the same old way, and not only that, they wanted to expand the WTO beyond trade.

"The rich countries overplayed their hand and misjudged the strength of feeling and unity of the developing world who want to make fair trade and have a stake in global prosperity," Hewett said.

Despite all the predictions from the US, EU and Australian delegations that the G22 countries would collapse, Brazil, India and China stayed resolute in their commitments to the end.

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