After Cancun, it's a new playing field.

• Author: Chafe, Zoe
• Position: Environmental Intelligence

In a world where the gap between rich and poor has widened, the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, last September may have been foreordained. There are 140 WTO member nations, and more than 100 are classified as "developing" countries by World Bank standards.

The talks appeared to be in trouble as soon as conference chair Luis Ernesto Derbez (Mexico) released the negotiating text to delegates. Developing countries were dismayed to find that many of their pre-submitted positions had been left out. Some of these positions were part of a detailed agenda that had been negotiated among 70 developing countries in preparation for the conference.

Developing countries are seeking to reduce trade barriers and export subsidies that impede the sale of their agricultural products on the global market. The draft ministerial text contained language that would have allowed the United States and the European Union to merely recategorize their subsidies to a less trade-distorting status, rather than remove them.

Before the conference began, four African cotton growing countries asked WTO members to address the issue of high domestic cotton subsidies, specifically in the...