MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cancun WTO talks collapse.

Negotiations at the fifth ministerial round of World Trade Organization, WTO, held during four days in Cancún, Mexico, concluded without having reached an understanding for the second time in four years when rich and poor nations proved unable to conciliate differences.

"It's all over", said Kenyan delegate George Odour Ong'wen, "differences were too wide and it was impossible to close the gap" adding that the Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister and president of the ministerial round had requested delegations from the 146 countries present to make it official.

The "Singapore issues", sponsored in the conference by Japan and the European Union that include rules on how countries treat foreign investors, competition policy and trade procedures finished collapsing discussions when they were rejected by many developing countries who interpret them as a developed countries diversion to impede the advancement in the elimination of agriculture subsidies.

The G 21, a group of developing countries that targets the elimination of agriculture barriers in developed countries and includes heavyweights such as China, India and Brazil made a last minute conciliation attempt but was ineffective.

US Trade representative Robert Zoellick said the conference showed countries with "a can do" attitude and those with "won't do", with the "won't do" overwhelming the concerted efforts of the "can do".

Argentine Trade representative Martin Redrado indicated that Argentina favours multilateral negotiations to bring down trade barriers, "but what happened in Cancun is worrisome, as occurred four years ago in Seattle. However we must look ahead and try to consolidate the G 21 that has proved a very effective political and professional structure present in al fronts".

"Concrete results were impossible to achieve", admitted Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celos Amorim.

After three days of intensive discussions and when positions seemed to be closing in, on Sunday the contentious "Singapore issues", a legacy from the previous ministerial meeting in Qatar appeared on the table.

However a few African developing nations insisted on the issue of rich nations paying subsidies to their farmers and their elimination. A draft final release circulated on Saturday called to an end of export subsidies on farm produce, an issue of special interest to developing countries, but fell short of the elimination of all subsidies urged by several African countries.

But when the "Singapore issues" emerged India and Malaysia were openly against addressing them.

Another conference to assess how dialogue can continue is scheduled for next December. The WTO has a self imposed timetable of January 2005 for a joint effort to achieve the greatest trade liberalization ever.