Failure of WTO talks bleak news for health of world's poor
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* Allison Gandey

September's World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting about the arcane laws governing world trade may appear to have had little to do with the health status of poor nations, but in fact the failure of those talks is a serious blow to health throughout the developing world.

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/169/9/948.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/169/9/948.2/F1)

Figure. **During September's WTO meeting in Mexico, South Korean farmer Kung Hae Lee stabbed himself to death to protest the rules governing agricultural trade.** Photo by: Canapress

“Instead of open markets, there are too many barriers that stunt, stifle and starve,” Rubens Ricupero, secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said as he urged the world's trade ministers to reach consensus quickly. “Instead of fair competition, there are subsidies by rich countries that tilt the playing field against the poor.”

One result, says the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is that 800 million people in the developing world do not have enough to eat, despite food production that has considerably surpassed the rate of population growth. The FAO says the resulting undernourishment takes a heavy toll on both health and productivity, with about 6 million children under age 5 dying every year as a result of malnutrition.

“Far from being empowered [by laws governing international trade],” said Ricupero, “the fisherman in Viet Nam, the cotton grower in Burkina Faso and the indigenous cultivator of medicinal herbs in Brazil are being held down.”

Trade issues are often technical and do not generally lend themselves to media coverage like war or extreme weather, added Ricupero, “but let there be no doubt: the damage is profound, and the victims can be counted in the billions.”

Unfortunately, nothing will change following the WTO's meeting in Cancún. The agriculture negotiations drew roughly 150 trade ministers to Mexico to deal with issues such as market access, domestic support and export subsidies. The meeting failed miserably in its attempts to give developing countries easier access to agricultural markets, and the failure has been touted as a major setback for the WTO, which referees trade between nations. Before its creation in 1995, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade governed world trade.

In an attempt to pick up the pieces, the WTO's General Council will meet in mid-December. An official with the organization said the meeting will deal with issues from the failed talks, including rules governing import restrictions, subsidies and programs that artificially raise or guarantee prices. Chances the WTO will achieve its self-imposed new-rules deadline of January 2005 appear slim, but it is hoped the December meeting will propel the talks closer to a conclusion.

The World Bank says an agreement that lowers tariff peaks and averages in both rich and developing countries could produce up to $520 billion in income gains, which would increase growth in developing countries and lift an additional 140 million people out of poverty by 2015.

But Canadian farmers worry the negotiations could undermine agriculture here. Bob Friesen, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, says the current changes proposed by the WTO “would spell disaster” for Canadian farmers. He wants improved market access, the elimination of all subsidies and decreased domestic support. He says the federation's position is in line with that of many developing nations, although Canada's approach differs in some instances.

“We will be making every effort possible to promote Canada's position, but we also want to demonstrate why our recommendations make sense for other countries as well,” Friesen said. — *Allison Gandey*, CMAJ