It’s the West vs the rest

"We have discussed the end date for ending agriculture subsidies, trade distorting subsidies and domestic subsidies, cotton, duty-free quota-free or DFQF for least developed countries or LDCs for almost 20 hours now, but there has been no solution," said Mr Deepak Patel, the spokesperson and trade minister from Zambia for the LDCs.

He symbolised the exasperation of the developing world at the total absence of discussions on the development dimension at the 6th ministerial meeting.

It is learnt that the discussion between Deepak Patel and the American trade ambassador Ron Portman on Thursday night was so heated that they had a literal war of words between them. In another instance, Venezuela threatened to walk out if the alternative text on services is not accepted as the basis of negotiation. The US said that if there is no progress in the Doha round of development, it will look elsewhere.

European Union’s trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said, "For the EU to offer a final date for eliminating Europe’s export subsidies before others have even made equivalent commitments to reform would be senseless. We need to use these negotiations to get compliance by all. That is the point of a multilateral negotiation."

Ms Marianne Fischer Boel, agricultural commissioner of the EU, said, "Reforms have to be specific and comprehensive. Then we can start discussing end dates. We are ready to move but I insist on taking others — the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — with us."

So as the meet entered its fourth tension-filled day, with more posturing than substance, the various groupings of the developing and least developed countries, the Asia-Pacific-Caribbean and small economies formed a joint block on Friday afternoon.

They hope to act as a pressure group of 110 countries on the United States and the European Union, who remain intransigent on their demand that the developing countries should open up their agriculture, industrial products and services to the developed countries. The spokesperson of the G-20, Mr Celso Amorin of Brazil, said "They cannot expect us to do more on industry and they do less on agriculture."

In a joint statement, the G-20, G-33, the ACP, LCDs the African group and small economies as the various groupings are referred to, reiterated their "shared interest in the development dimension of the round and their expectations for a comprehensive development outcome." They recalled that "agriculture is central to the development."