BRASILIA The head of the World Trade Organization said on Monday that he sometimes felt like protesting too but promised that disputed global trade talks do not need to be held on one of the polar caps to avoid disruptive protests.
"It will not be on the North or the South Pole," WTO Director General Mike Moore told Brazilian journalists when asked if there was anywhere safe to hold trade talks these days. The last, failed, attempt at a global round of negotiations to liberalize trade ended amid acrimonious disagreement between members and running street battles with antitrade protesters in the streets of Seattle last December. But, Moore said "Sometimes I fell like protesting too," when asked whether developing nations' agricultural products should gain more access to rich country markets.
Developing countries, including Brazil, were furious in Seattle that rich countries would not take concrete measures to cut subsidies to their own farmers and import more from poor nations. The WTO chief pointed out that if developed nations cut all their agricultural subsidies for home producers if would amount to three times annual global Third World aid. Moore said "Several countries have expressed interest" to host another round of trade talks and he hoped a decision on staging them will be taken by the end of next year.
(Reuter)