The staying power of the old exploitative colonialist mentality rendered fresh ideas at the WTO meeting in Mexico irrelevant, writes Gamal Nkrumah The World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in the Mexican resort city of Cancun collapsed in the face of fundamental differences between rich and poor nations. At long last, the poor took a stand against the Machiavellian machinations and threats of the rich and powerful nations. The poor countries simply refused to cave in to the demands or accept the bones thrown to them as sufficient compensation for historical injustices. There is little chance of the WTO evolving in the direction of a comprehensive dialogue between rich and poor nations unless the rich now act magnanimously. Cancun was a crushing defeat for the United States and the European Union, and the ripple effects of the collapse of the WTO talks cannot be underestimated or downplayed. The developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America have had their say. The developing countries seized a golden opportunity to collectively air their grievances and vent their anger with the current international economic order. Cancun was a watershed meeting -- a decisive turning point in international relations. All it took for the talks to collapse was for the poor countries to not flinch in the face of pressure, maintaining a common bargaining position despite their many differences. The ecstatic celebrations of anti-globalisation activists on the streets and beaches of Cancun lent the upmarket Mexican resort an air of revelry and festivity. The Cancun anti-globalisation carnival was short-lived, tempered by the hard economic realities hitting poor countries and the continuing recession in many of the world's wealthiest nations. Africa appears this week to have at last unequivocally said no to the WTO. The natural scepticism of the poor for the wealthy nations' allegedly mutually enriching proposals finally coalesced to form a influential bloc of the dispossessed. Trade delegates are due to reconvene in Geneva by 15 December. Optimists contend that there still might be a chance to remedy the situation in Geneva or at the next ministerial trade talks scheduled for 2004 in Hong Kong. Despite the show of resistance at Cancun, some in the wealthy nations of the North firmly believe that the poor countries can still be cowed into submission and forced to compromise on key issues before Hong Kong. This week's results were no fluke, and the road from Cancun to Hong Kong will not be a cake walk, but a long, arduous process. The collapse of the Cancun talks gives new impetus to demands by the poor to reform the world economic order and to rectify the gross injustice done to the poor and powerless. There were those who charged that has more emotional resonance than analytical foundation. "'Won't do' led to the impasse," said US trade representative at the Cancun talks Robert Zoellick, bitterly mulling over his defeat. The World Bank contends that the poor will be the biggest losers from the failure to reach a compromise in Cancun, audaciously claiming that some 144 million people could have been lifted out of poverty if the Cancun meeting had succeeded. The developing countries argue that was a no-win situation for them in any case. The rich contend that important concessions were made to favour the poor in the domains of textiles, medicines and pharmaceuticals. The poor counter that such gestures cannot make up for the lack of interest in the vital issues that impact the poor such as opening up the markets of rich countries to the agricultural and manufactured goods of the developing world. In the same vein, the subsidised agricultural products of the richer countries are flooding the markets of the poor countries and ruining their agricultural production. The principle of upholding the interests for the developing world, allowing it to develop itself in accordance with free market principles, was stifled. The markets of the industrialised countries remain distorted against the agricultural and manufactured goods of the developing world. In the same vein, the subsidised agricultural products of the richer countries are flooding the markets of the poor countries and ruining their agricultural production potential. Still, some parties in the developing world might gain from the essentially insignificant gestures of the North. Africa's 30 million HIV/ AIDS sufferers and India, as the world's largest producer of generic drugs, will stand to benefit from the few concrete results of Cancun. Issues related to the $500 billion world agriculture market proved to be the most contentious at the Cancun talks. EU farmers are among the world's most heavily subsidised farmers, "spoiled brats" as one delegate from an impoverished African country angrily called European farmers. Yet, the EU adamantly refuses to reform its much maligned Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Poor countries called for the immediate elimination of all subsidies for agriculture production in wealthy countries such as the US and the EU nations. The failure by rich countries to adequately address agricultural subsidies is a key reason for the collapse of the Cancun talks. Ultimately, the so-called Singapore issues first proposed at the 1998 WTO meeting in Singapore proved to be the undoing of the Cancun talks. Poor countries were not prepared to be dictated to and be told the proper etiquette for treating foreign investors. Foreign investors, they were told, must be handled with kid gloves and treated like kings. Universal free trade seems to have been dealt a severe blow as well and is fast being replaced by the rising stars of regional economic groupings, as exemplified in the expansionist powers of the EU and the bilateral trade pacts favoured by the US. As the Cancun meeting concluded delegates rich and poor began counting the cost of the collapse of the talks. "There are only losers. In the same way that everyone would have emerged as a winner if we had been able to reach agreement at Cancun," EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said. One lesson stands out: unity and solidarity among the poor in international fora is key to their success at the negotiating table. Acquiescence to the demands of the wealthy nations must no longer be taken for granted. The will of the rich and powerful cannot be imposed indefinitely on the poor and powerless. As for this new-found empowerment, one of the most inspiring aspects about the Cancun experience is that large, influential and relatively more-industrially-advanced developing countries with huge domestic markets such as Brazil, China and India stood in solidarity with the smaller, poorer and least developed countries even on issues such as foreign investment. China, which is the world's largest recipient of foreign investment, expressed solidarity with other developing countries that have been starved of foreign investment by blocking any agreement on foreign investment that violated the interests of the poorer bloc. Cancun was an eye-opener for African delegates and observers. "This was the first time that African officials met with African NGOs. This was an interesting development," director of the Ghana-based Third World Network Yao Graham told Al-Ahram Weekly. Graham said his group was among some 50 African non- governmental organisations represented at the Cancun talks. "The culture of colonisation and exploitation is so deeply ingrained in the wealthy nations' attitude towards the poorer and undeveloped nations," he added. Graham, who saw a lot of "arm-twisting" at the meetings, has no expectations that wealthy countries will make concessions. "The utter insensitivity to the wishes of the poor; the capacity to squeeze and squeeze the poor and to ruthlessly exploit the poor will inevitably rebound on the rich," he said. The WTO meeting in Cancun provided a vivid illustration of how the North and the South are drifting apart due to diverging agendas and the lack of political will to bridge the gap. There is a realisation that solidarity among the poor and powerless counts, that unity works. To maintain momentum, that fusion of interests which is indispensable to lending a voice to the developing world at international fora must be upheld at all costs.
