Trade liberalization, its proponents promise, will bring benefits to all countries. The World Bank, for example, calculates that “full” trade liberalization could bring between $200 billion and $500 billion in additional income to developing countries. The catch-22 is that in practice the rich countries take full advantage of the openings they press on developing countries, while failing to open their own markets.
Speaking off the record, many developing countries representatives say the levels of tension between rich and poor countries are now at even higher levels than in Seattle. Instead of taking the opportunity for dialogue, rich countries have offered little or nothing to address the concerns of African and other developing countries. The poor are asked to accept the agenda whether they like it or not and to swallow their rage as rich countries, claiming to represent global interests, once again impose their minority views.
This is particularly clear in agriculture, where agricultural subsidies to farmers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan have risen to almost $1 billion a day–more than six times the amount these countries provide in development assistance. Together with other measures, such as tariffs and quotas, these subsidies make it difficult for developing countries to compete in rich country markets. Even more damaging, they allow agricultural exports from the rich countries to drive small farmers out of business even in their home countries. This threatens domestic food security as well as undermining export potential.
Developing countries have identified at least 104 specific “implementation” issues they want addressed. A few examples include U.S. use of “anti-dumping” barriers to restrict exports of steel from developing countries, including South Africa, the impact of lower industrial tariffs in devastating domestic industries in many developing countries, and the failure of the rich countries to provide adequate technical assistance to enable developing countries to comply with trade regulations and compete effectively. African countries have also led a fight to oppose the use of intellectual property rights to patent life forms, a trend that threatens developing country control over genetic stock vital for agricultural production.