Sunday, September 14th
Br. Dave Andrews

Today, Sunday the 14th, was to be the last day of the World Trade Organization's ministerial meetings. In Seattle, WA the meetings had to end without a conclusion because the space was reserved for a new group. Such is not the case here in Cancun, and it has been announced that at least one additional date will be added to the meeting...so, at this point the concluding ceremony is scheduled for a day later than previously announced.

The big hold-up here is agriculture, as it has been all along. The draft text was released with only one major supporter of it, the USA. I just attended a briefing by the Third World Network, a global alliance with specialists on Asia, Africa, Latin America. Their consensus was that the draft text for agriculture was not acceptable...African civil society produced a press release denouncing the draft, the Africa specialist of the Third World Network cautioned that there are political forces at work in the African positions...South Africa has most of the powerful cards and has been trying to act as a bridge builder between blocs, but according so some was stabbed in the back by the USA and EU...and is floundering to reestablish its position and find a new political ground.

With another possible 2 days for the agriculture text to be negotiated, the export fundamentalism of the US is the dominant voice. The fact that the USA has not accepted the African position on cotton, which asks for special and differential treatment because African cotton producing nations are among the poorest countries...the slapping down of them by the leaders of the WTO has created a new solidarity in African and among Africans and others... So, South Africa can play a key role in these talks.

For Latin America, Brazil and China have combined to counter the US and EU. They are part of the Group of 21 who are holding the fort against the trade liberalization efforts of the US and EU. So, we don't know what will happen with Brazil which is playing a role in the whole Latin America agenda setting. They could move in a new direction with Lula's presidency, or they might remain on the same path as before. They have three representatives here in Cancun..the agriculture minister who is pro-export and pro-agribusiness; the agrarian reform minister who will be sensitive to the concerns of small farmers; and a political representative.

With Central America, the US has strong leverage and the CAFTA negotiations basically are on track with some saying that the governments of Central America are run out of their US embassies. The image in the world press seems to have changed from a focus on anti- and pro-globalization to a recognition that this is really a challenge between the rich and the poor. The moral evaluation of the world press seems to be doing a better job of "getting it". We hope that everyone who reads these words thinks about the implications on a world scale of NCRLC's refrain: "Eating is a Moral Act."