Talks collapse frustrates Africa

Abidjan - African farmers greeted the collapse of world trade talks with frustration on Wednesday and their countries said it would make it even harder to fight poverty.

The latest bid to conclude talks, launched in 2001 with an
express aim of addressing the needs of developing nations,
collapsed on Tuesday after the US clashed with emerging powers like China, India and Indonesia over farming.

"We are disappointed, but we have not given up," said Ivory
Coast cotton farmer Seydou Soro, former head of the industry
association Intercoton.

"We still hope there will one day be an agreement for the
Americans to stop subsidies to their cotton farmers so African
cotton can compete on the world market."

Subsidies to US cotton farmers, blamed for flooding world
markets and undermining the prices paid to millions of African
smallholders and their families, were set to be reined in under
the trade deal. But the Geneva talks never got that far.

"Most of the key issues of interest to the African continent
were not even discussed, especially the issue of cotton," Uhuru
Kenyatta, Kenya's Trade Minister and the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) coordinator for Africa, said in Geneva.

"Africa critically needs to realise development and get
itself out of poverty through the establishment of fair trade
rather than aid. Africa's opportunity to achieve fair trade has
therefore been gravely undermined by the lack of progress in
these negotiations," he said.

Kenyatta held out hope negotiations could be revived at a
later stage to build on progress made on some key issues.

Round and round

The WTO's "Doha Development round" has been heralded by
supporters as a unique opportunity to boost global commerce and
offer millions of poor farmers and others in developing
countries a chance to trade their way out of poverty.

But some development campaigners have complained that rich
industrialised countries and a few big emerging economies like
China, India and Brazil hold all the bargaining chips.

The future of African banana farms, for example, hinged on
talks between the European Union and leading Latin American
growers.

They agreed that as part of an overall deal Brussels would
reduce import tariffs designed to keep out bananas from places
like Ecuador in favour of fruit from former colonies.

That, like the other compromise deals struck in Geneva, is
null and void under the WTO's "all or nothing" approach which
many blame for the collapse.

"We are happy we will to keep the status quo ... This gives
us breathing space," said Emile Nanga, head of a group of
small-scale banana farmers in Ivory Coast, one of Africa's top
growers. African banana growers had rejected the tariff deal.

But not all were happy with the Geneva deadlock.

"The failure of the Geneva negotiations is obviously not
good news for us in the CDC because we depend on WTO mechanisms
that provide protection for vulnerable sectors like banana
production," said Charles Endeley, spokesperson for the Cameroon
Development Corporation (CDC), Cameroon's top banana grower.

Some economists worry the failure to secure a deal to
liberalise world trade could leave the door open to increased
protectionism at a time many rich and poor countries alike are
struggling to cope with surging fuel and food prices.

Biggest burden

"One of the key causes of the current food crisis, namely
market distortions brought about by the subsidies, will remain
to haunt us," said Lesotho's Trade Minister Propane Lebesa.

Lebesa said the Doha Round should be resumed as soon as
possible, as it has been after previous collapses.

But whether or not that happens, the uncertainty and
imbalances many African farmers have complained about for years
look set to continue for the forseeable future.

"Unfortunately, as always happens, it is the poorest of the
poor who always carry the biggest burden," said Kenyatta.

- Reuters