WTO’s failed Cancun meeting disappoints shippers

WTO’s failed Cancun meeting disappoints shippers    The World Trade Organization’s ministerial meeting in Cancun is viewed by many shippers as a dismal failure.
   The meeting, Sept. 11-14, quickly became a pitch battle over farm subsidies and market access between developed and developing countries.
   Developing country leaders and agricultural shippers sharply criticized the United States, European Union and Japan for not going far enough to eliminate farm export subsidies and tariffs placed on imported agricultural commodities.
   Farm and industry interests from the developed countries countered this position by stating developing countries didn’t want to open their markets to trade.
   “What we are seeing at the negotiations is a group of developing countries, led by Brazil, making one-sided demands of developed countries, but refusing to put their own policies on the table,” said Ron Heck, president of the American Soybean Association. “If Brazil and these other countries continue to be uncompromising about opening their own markets and disciplining their subsidies, the WTO negotiations will go over the cliff and Brazil will be responsible for pushing them over.”
   “Negotiations of this kind require compromise on all sides,” said Maria Livanos Cattaui, secretary general for the International Chamber of Commerce. “It became obvious that some governments were not here to negotiate, but rather to grandstand or simply reiterate untenable positions.”
   U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick warned that the WTO negotiations, started at Doha, Qatar, in 2001, may not be completed by the end of 2004. The Bush administration said it would continue to pursue bilateral free trade agreements with other countries.
   Shipper groups said they hope the WTO global free-trade initiatives continue. “This is obviously a setback, but it is not the end,” Cattaui said.