Whose round is it anyway?

[CAFOD]

A special CAFOD Hong Kong Report which analyses the delicate balancing act between the WTO, agriculture and the need to protect small-scale farmers

Rich countries stand accused of eating their domestic cake whilst also wanting to dine out on international markets. At present their agenda is clear – to protect their own farmers and seek major concessions from developing countries in all areas of WTO talks.

In agriculture they do this largely through maintaining their damaging subsidies that pit their wealthy subsidised farmers and agribusinesses against small-scale farmers in poor countries.

At the same time rich countries aggressively try to barge their way into developing country agricultural markets by demanding that they lower their own tariffs. The resulting flood of cheap imports from over-producing rich countries threatens to undermine the livelihoods of millions of some of developing countries’ poorest producers, squeezing them out of business.

The long-term danger is that countries will lose the ability to defend their most vulnerable people, leading to deepening poverty.

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