THE Moment of Truth: WTO Members confront the challenge of reconciling the WTO?s trade paradigm with development goals

The debate on food and livelihood security and rural development in the Doha negotiations on agriculture has come to a head. The debate was triggered by recent proposals from the U.S., Thailand and Malaysia, and a framework paper on special products (SPs) from the Chair of the agriculture talks, Ambassador Falconer of New Zealand. On May 11 the Group of 33 (G-33), also known as the Alliance on Special Products (SPs) and a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), and comprising 42 WTO members, joined with the African Group, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group to voice their protest at what they saw to be a misrepresentation of the negotiations to date.[1] The Ambassadors of Indonesia and the Philippines issued a joint press statement to complain that the framework paper failed to capture the G-33