WTO trade talks: deal based on false promises would con world's poor

The new global trade deal will not solve the world’s food crisis and is likely to only exacerbate poverty and hunger warns charity ActionAid today ahead of crucial trade talks at the WTO next week. Ministers from up to 40 countries will sit down for so called ‘make-or-break’ discussions in Geneva to finalise a deal on the Doha round of trade talks, in what Pascal Lamy, head of the WTO, has described as a last  ditch attempt to reach an agreement.

Dr Claire Melamed, Policy Co-ordinator at ActionAid said: "It’s nonsense that the current WTO deal will help solve the global food crisis - there is absolutely no evidence to support this. Over the last eight years, every single trade promise to the poor has been broken and development issues never take centre stage. In fact they have been progressively marginalised.

"Using the food crisis to force a resolution on these trade talks is nothing more than a shameless distortion of the truth. Luring developing countries into signing up to a bad deal  when they are already coping with rising food prices, climate change and the threat of  global recession is an insult to the world's poor."

She continued:  "The number of hungry people in the world has risen dramatically this year from 800  million to more than 950  million people. These talks are really about prising open markets in developing countries with no benefit to those most in need. And worryingly, the deal now on the table will actually make it harder for poor country governments to prevent a global food crisis in the future."

The current trade deal is unlikely to lead to a cut in rich world agricultural subsidies but developing countries would be forced to sign up to deals that could jeopardise their development potential.