After 7 Years, Talks on Trade Collapse

[Maria Sipka]

"Oh no. Not Again!". New York Times reported from GENEVA — World trade talks collapsed here on Tuesday after seven years of on-again, off-again negotiations, in the latest sign of India’s and China’s growing might on the world stage and the decreasing ability of the United States to impose its will globally.

[Ida Horner]

That is disappointing news indeed. I wonder why it is not apparent that trade is part of the equation of redressing poverty

[Business Fights Poverty]

Take a look at the response to the collapse of the trade talks from Business Action for Africa.

[Mark Trotter]

It is time for the world to realise that left to politicians and economists things don't change at the speed we need them to change.

How do we make trade easier and more effective for all parties, essentially we begin to deal with real people and not jobs/titles. We look at real needs and not global economic interests. You can have all the free trade you like but if no one is buying because no one is left or they are too weak or poor you have to ask what is the point.

When I work with Government Departments and NGO's I work to agreed deadlines because after a certain amount of talking it becomes uneconomical to talk any more. So why can't negotiators adopt the same policy, do the small local things quickly and well then the rest will follow as a matter of process.

India and China are houses built on straw, their economies could not witrh stand the equivelent of a Wall Street Crash for a variety of fiscal reasons and the USA is already bankrupt as the First Prime scandal shows, the rest of the world props up the US economy.

We are fast approaching a time for change in global economic's and poverty will grow unless more is done through personal links and global networking of local trade. I would love my corner show to be able to say to me that my coffee comes from a specific location in SA or Africa and that there link is through this person.

But again the WTT would get in the way.

[Michael Blondino]

Mark's comments ring true in our sphere of operation. Annually 85,000 metric tons of raw cashews are produced in Guinea-Bissau, a country consistently in the bottom five countries on the Human Development Index. It ranks as one of the worst environments for children, and one of the most difficult places in the world to start a business. It is unstable and utterly undeveloped. The cashews they've produced for decades have been gobbled up by India and sold as a "product of India" to the rest of the world. This is changing however.

Secondly, there is a fundamental disconnect between the rural poor, who simply need enterprise (even more than micro-credit), and the macro financing/policy making typified by the likes of the World Bank and global lobbyists. To get money to the poor, and impact the bottom billion, we would be wiser to stop talking about politics and get engaged in investment, mentoring and marketing African agri-products to retail. The farmers we work with couldn't care less about tariffs and trade barriers when they don't have capital to even buy a cashew splitting machine for 150 Euro. It's like we're spending all this time and money on creating a super-highway for people without cars. Entrepreneurs find a way around barriers as we have. Let's stop hanging our hopes on policy, and start putting our experience, time and wealth in teaching people to fish.

[Muhammad Kashif Hayat]

Dear Maria,
How are you? It's also quite new to the world that now people want some radical changes in the Global Economic System. The riots in London in the G20 Meeting shows that people now are fed up from the this ancient economic system. Free & Fair Trade should be for the benefit of the common people on this planet. Let's hope for the best. Take Care.