By Martin Banks - 19th June 2007
Almost three quarters of developing country trade negotiators believe the Doha round has not lived up to its development billing.
That is according to a survey by the development agency ActionAid, whose findings coincide with crunch talks this week designed to prevent the collapse of the Doha round.
EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson joins ministers from the United States, India and Brazil, at the talks in the German city of Potsdam.
Some politicians fear a breakdown of the Doha talks will trigger a global trade war.
In its survey, ActionAid, an anti-poverty agency, asked 40 negotiators from countries not at this week’s talks whether the Doha round had lived up to its development billing.
Only three answered yes, with 28 saying no and nine saying it was too early to say.
Campaigners have criticised the WTO process for not including the world's poorest nations in the negotiations.
In the survey, all African delegates said that there was no development agenda in this round of trade talks.
Chris Kinyanjui, ActionAid’s Africa director, said, “African countries are clearly not happy with the process and this week’s G4 meeting in Germany proves their point.
“The big guns of the WTO are much happier forcing through deals at exclusive meetings than they are coming to the negotiating table with all parties to come up with a fair deal.”
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