Subsidy WatchIssue 3, August 2006

  • Demise of Doha: Opportunity Missed or Opportunity Gained for Subsidy Reform?

    The trade talks in Geneva had been going nowhere fast. They are now simply going nowhere. Late last month the World Trade Organization (WTO) suspended the Doha Development Round, after nearly five years of negotiations over an international trade agreement intended to spur growth in low-income economies.

    At the center of the fall-out were the United States and the European Union, the latter demanding cuts to American agricultural subsidies, the former looking for better access to the EU market for its agricultural goods.

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Also in this issue:

Commentary

  • Opportunity Lost?

    By Sophia Murphy, Senior Advisor, Trade and Global Governance, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis, Minnesota

    The U.S. refusal to make deeper cuts to its agricultural subsidies was one of the main reasons for suspension of negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. The United States was offering more cuts, but only if other countries made much bigger cuts to their tariffs. Since the U.S. offer on subsidies was still limited and since none of the other WTO members had a mandate to get near the U.S. market access demands, governments called it quits.

    Has a huge opportunity for agricultural subsidy reform been lost? No, for at least two reasons.

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  • Towards a Better Deal

    By Susan Sechler, U.S. Director, Trade & Development Programme,, The German Marshall Fund, Washington, DC and Ann Tutwiler, Managing Director, Trade and Development, Hewlett Foundation, Washington, DC

    The crash of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks was greeted with muted cheers by some protected farmers in wealthy countries, some even buying new tractors to celebrate yet another failure to produce a more efficient and just global marketplace.

    But sadly there was not much grief on any negotiating team, as most countries seemed to believe there was 'nothing on the table' for which to mourn.

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Studies

  • Book Reviews: Uncovering Subsidies in the United States

    Timothy P. Carney, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006, xiv + 285 pages, $24.95

    Martin Fridson, Unwarranted Intrusions: The Case against Government Intervention in the Marketplace, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006, ix + 309 pages, $24.95

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  • Readings

    WTO World Trade Report on Subsidies

    On July 24 - the day the G6 talks broke down at the World Trade Organization (WTO), leading to the suspension of the Doha Round - the WTO Secretariat released the 2006 World Trade Report. This year's report focuses on subsidies. Readers will find this to be one of the most comprehensive surveys of the subsidy literature, and data, written to date.

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Events