From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM TRADINGDevelopment Agenda, so named to reflect the mandate they had ofredressing some of the injustices of the global trading system. Thefinal statement from the Doha Round included nine separate referencesto the need to guarantee extra flexibility to developing countriesthrough ‘special and differential treatment’ and a promise to deal withthe tariffs that keep many developing-country exports out of richcountrymarkets. Working groups were set up to look at some of themost pressing issues facing developing countries, such as Trade, Debtand Finance, and Trade and Technology Transfer, and discussionswere mandated on the particular problems facing small economies.Six years on, the Doha round appears deadlocked. Deadlines havecome and gone, and the promises made in 2001 have long since beenbroken. The rich countries in the WTO have appeared incapable ofaccommodating the demands of a large number of increasinglyassertive developing countries, and this has produced a long anddispiriting stalemate. Throughout the course of the round, Oxfamand others have supported developing-country governments andcivil society organisations in focusing attention on the links betweentrade and development and the need to right the rigged rules anddouble standards in the system, if globalisation is to work fordevelopment. 58In agriculture, for example, international trade rules impede theefforts of developing countries to develop their economies and reducepoverty. Rich countries and poor countries support their farmers indifferent ways. Subsidy superpowers such as the EU and USA supportagriculture with large helpings of state aid. Cash-strapped poorcountries have to use import tariffs to keep up prices for their farmersand protect themselves from dumping. Rather than favour tariffdependentdeveloping countries, the trade rules do precisely theopposite. Through a series of carefully crafted loopholes, the WTOAgreement on Agriculture allows rich countries unlimited subsidies,while trying to impose cuts on the use of tariffs by poor and richcountries alike. The rich countries’ reluctance to end this doublestandard lies at the heart of the stalemate in the Doha Round.Perhaps the most egregious example is the US cotton industry.Taxpayers provide a mere 25,000 US cotton farmers and corporationswith annual subsidies of up to $4bn, resulting in overproduction and321