Cancun collapse a victory for Third World: SJM

Describing the Cancun failure as a 'victory of the Third World,' the Sangh Parivar-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch on Wednesday asked the government to go back on its WTO commitments until the rich nations fulfilled their promises, and garner support within developing nations for renegotiating previous pro-developed agreements.

"India should take a firm view and not fulfill its WTO commitments till the developed nations fulfilled theirs. The government should also look at re-negotiating the previous agreements like Agreement on Agriculture, TRIPS to make them pro-developing countries," Bhagwati Prakash Sharma, member of SJM's delegation to Cancun and chief of All India Study Circles told reporters upon his return to New Delhi.

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Sharma said rich nations which had made commitments on bringing down the subsidy levels at Uruguay had increased it instead and added that "if developed countries did not address implementation issues developing countries had every right to go back on their commitments too."

Cautioning the Government on the increasing pressure from developed nations to agree to their agenda, he said India, which had taken the lead among developing countries, should work towards retaining its alliances with Like Minded Countries (LMCs) to make global trade fair.

"Developed countries will now try to divide the developing world and the alliances formed by them to counter the US-EU agenda and India should proactively continue its association with developing nations at WTO," Sharma said.

He said SJM would now coordinate with other international non-governmental organisations and civil society groups to work on promoting developing countries' interests and to root out unfair global trade practices.

Earlier, leading social activist Vandana Shiva too aired similar thoughts. She said India should roll back its commitments on agriculture at WTO as developed world had not fulfilled its promises on farm subsidies.

"The fear of WTO is behind us and we should act with courage in national interest. We should roll back commitments like lifting of quantitative restrictions as the West was neither ready to fulfill its commitments on farm subsidies made earlier nor to make any fresh commitments to create a level playing field," Shiva, who has just returned from Cancun, Mexico, said.

Calling for a serious rethink on the whole agreement on agriculture, Shiva said government should now understand the 'unfair' trade practices of the West and take appropriate measures to prevent the farmers suicides due to distorted farm trade.

Accusing the WTO of following double standards, she said rules of the game were very transparent. While North would not open its markets and keep supporting its producers, South should open its markets wide, she said.

The collapse of the fifth ministerial has only confirmed the fact of its being a pro-developed institution, she said.

The United States and the European Union have shown commitments to live by their own rules and called it a 'medieval institution' when they could not achieve their agenda.