Doh! Ha

So the Doha round of the World trade negotiations have collapsed.  This is a sad end to seven years of negotiations.

It is a bold aim to work towards a global community and successful negotiations would have been good news.  Eventually it will be successful of course and we will wonder what the fuss was about.  It may not happen any time soon.

(The DOHA round of the WTO, Matthew?  A bit serious isn't it?  I know, curiously my mentor, DR, and I appear to have swapped roles for the day)

The world has changed a lot in the last seven years.  China and India are wealthier and have a stronger hand than when the process started. 

Farm subsidies in developed countries seemed unacceptable a few years ago.  Now, with the prospect of food shortages, perhaps national governments are less willing to discard their productive capacity. 

I've always found it a bit curious that within these negotiations Europe's corner was being fought by Peter Mandelson.   His position is very different from the protectionist countries within Europe. 

When I was in Brussels a couple of months ago, I was suprised by how universally disliked Mandelson seemed to be.  Most of the comments about him were largely personal (often homophobic) so I paid them little regard.  This said, I can't think of a character with less desire for a profitable British Agricultural Industry than Mandy.  I'm all for free trade but what the hell is he proposing that we sell in exchange for food?  Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals for Christ's sake?  We don't produce anything anymore.

The matter is possibly too complex for a gibbon like me to comment on.  I don't disagree that the solution to helping poor nations is to help them to develop their infrastructure and to engage them in trade.  In a world where fuel is increasingly valuable, I'm not convinced that it has to be food that is traded.

I am hoping to go to Africa later in the year to report back on the FARMAfrica appeal.  Rising food prices have pushed millions more people there into poverty and hunger.  The world surely has a duty to share its wealth by whatever means to alleviate suffering.

There is a deep irony here of course.  Amidst the desperation in Africa is the world's most successful cut flower industry.  Competition from Kenya and Africa has brought the English flower industry to the brink of destruction.  

I could go round in circles on this.  Let's face it if I can't make my mind up, there's little bloody chance of 153 countries agreeing on it.