U.S. Negotiators Boxed into a Corner at WTO

A new economic simulation of the U.S. agriculture proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) confirmed what NGOs and developing countries have been saying for months: the proposal has so many loopholes it may actually increase the allowable amount of domestic agriculture spending in the U.S. The new simulation exposed not only the emptiness of the U.S. proposal, but also the limited space that U.S. negotiators find themselves in as the Doha Round moves forward.

The May 19 economic simulation was prepared at the request of trade negotiators from the European Union, the U.S. and nine other WTO members. It assessed the main agriculture proposals from the U.S., EU, G-10 and G-20. It found that under the U.S. proposal, U.S. agriculture spending could legally increase to $22.5 billion a year, from last year