TWN Report by Martin Khor, New York, 31 October 2003
Instead of developing countries receiving more external financial resources, the reverse has hapened: there was a net transfer of funds from developing countries to developed countries amounting to almost $200 billion in 2002.
During the last couple of weeks, the WTO headquarters in Geneva has been an unusually calm and quiet place, after weeks of chaotic and untransparent negotiations just before the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Cancun.
As the developing countries, and some of their leaders (here and in capitals) show eagerness to resume the negotiations, the US and the EC seem to be strengthened in their view that they could demand and get a price from the developing countries for this.
Via Campesina, the largest international farmer's organization, and other organizations that adhere to the food sovereignty principle, call for excluding food and agriculture from trade agreements like the WTO, NAFTA and the FTAA.
In the United States, the failure of the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico, to reach a new agreement was seen as a 'debacle' that cast a shadow on the future of free trade.
There is so much dissatisfaction and anger among so many developing countries that the usual attempt used at Ministerials by the major developed countries to bulldoze through a text at the last minute may not work this time.
In Cancun, one of the most important decisions for Ministers will be whether or not to launch negotiations on new WTO agreements on investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, trade facilitation.
