Factors behind the breakdown of negotiations.

• Author: Kennis, Andrew
• Position: Thinking Economically

In September 2003, trade ministers from every corner of the world returned--empty-handed--to their respective countries after attending the 5th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, located in the island paradise of Cancun, Mexico. The gathering resulted in no agreement, and left developed countries frustrated and unsatisfied.

Conversely, underdeveloped countries forged new alliances. Generally, they viewed the meeting's failure to reach an agreement as a victory and a show of renewed strength among the world's poorest, and often most populous, countries.

The round of trade policy talks that took place in Cancun was initiated two years ago in Doha, Qatar. In the wake of the massive Seattle protests of 1999, which resulted in the cancellation of the opening ceremonies and the crippling of the talks, the leaders of the WTO chose this remote and inaccessible location for their next annual meeting. Qatar's advantages, from the WTO's point of view, included laws against public assemblies of five or more people without specific government permission, as well as its considerable distance from most centers of resistance to corporate globalization.

The Doha talks, protected as they were from public demonstrations, did result in an agreement of sorts. Participants launched goals that would supposedly help poor countries develop and rise above the structural and trade-related barriers that keep the world's poorest populations in destitution.

On September 12, more than 70 underdeveloped countries issued a formal presentation to the WTO, clarifying their position on the four contentious topics known as the "Singapore Issues:" foreign investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation. The huge block of countries, mostly located in the Southern hemisphere (the so-called "Global South"), demanded that an explicit consensus be reached on these issues before formal negotiations could take place. In fact, this request merely restated a key provision that was already agreed upon and codified in the Doha Declaration. It was also understood that the South wanted to see more concessions from developed countries including cuts in the multi-billion dollar agricultural subsidies that have effectively barred small farmers from underdeveloped nations from participation in the international agricultural export market.

The following morning, the second revision of the Draft Cancun Ministerial Text was released by Mr. Luis Ernesto Derbez, the chair of the conference and Foreign Affairs Minister of Mexico. The paper made it clear that the requests put forth by the South had been completely disregarded by the authors of the document. From the perspective of the "Southern" nations, this text was worse than the first one in many...