Monday, July 28, 2008

another food fight

Yesterday I caught a snippet of news from the World Trade Organization talks in Switzerland. Not much is getting done, and a lot of that has to do with fights over agricultural subsidies. The proposal on the table is for the US to take a 70% cut in subsidies and the EU 80%.

Many developing countries are pressing for more.

The US would go along with the proposal, but only if tariffs are reduced on some manufactured goods coming from developing countries.

Meanwhile, agricultural net exporters among developing countries - Paraguay and Uruguay are mentioned - are screaming unfair.

And France is worried about protecting appellations for its various agricultural outputs.

Here's the latest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7531099.stm
Though I have to admit that after reading it, I am still not clear what did - or didn't - go on.
I do wonder though - why the US primary negotiator have her eyes closed for so much of the brief interview shown in this clip?

I'm going to read this latest briefing from the Oakland Institute
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/Blame_Game_Brief.pdf
and hope I get a picture that's in focus, eyes open.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Phina,
I saved the November EL and am just getting around to contacting you. You are a natural for blogging.

toddyfolgate@wmca.net