As the last round of world trade talks reached a conclusion in December 1993 in Geneva, developing countries were under pressure
not to derail an agreement.
A deal had been struck between the United States and the European Union and other countries had the option of signing the deal or killing it.
Developing countries relented and signed on, assured by the rich countries that freer agricultural trade would help all economies.
Six years later, the impact of that decision is becoming more evident and according to a study done by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the fallout is not always pretty.
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In Sri Lanka, for example, lower tariffs resulted in a flood of imported onions and potatoes at the expense of domestic producers.
In Brazil, freer trade has led to farm consolidation at the expense of smaller and poorer farmers. There was a similar pattern in other developing countries.
“It led to the displacement and marginalization of farm labourers, creating hardship that involved typically small farmers and food-insecure population groups and this in a situation where there are few safety nets,” said the FAO report.
In most of the 14 developing countries studied, the populations have become more dependent on food imports, even if the countries’ agricultural exports also have increased since 1994.
Often, the victims are local farmers.
“In Guyana, for example, there were import surges in recent years for several of the main foodstuffs that were produced domestically in the 1980s under a protective import regime,” said the report.
“In several instances, the surge in imports has undermined domestic production.”
A litany of developing world problems has led some ministers from the developed world to concede that trade and subsidy rules written in 1993 to benefit rich countries have not done much to spread the wealth.
“From the developing country point of view, they were somewhat led down the garden path by the European Union and the United States,” said Canadian agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief.
“They were told it was a good deal but there has been little increase in trade for them since and sometimes the reverse. This is not what it was supposed to do.”
As WTO members try to get another negotiation launched, they face the challenge of convincing developing countries that things will be different
this time.
They are expecting some skepticism.
