Summary: September 15, 2003: WTO - Cancun Summit Fails (Cancun - Mexico)
The World Trade Organisation summit that brought the representatives of 148 countries to Cancun in Mexico has failed before it was due to end. Four years after, the Seattle scenario repeated itself with a clash between the rich and poor worlds.
Surprisingly, the breakdown came not over agriculture but the 'Singapore package': investments, competition, transparency in bidding and making trade easier.
Faced with the demands of the most industrialised nations to liberalise their markets, African states dug in their heels: the four big cotton producers (Benin, Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso) plus Kenya, Uganda and Senegal and other developing countries.
The scheduled conclusion of the Doha Round by January 1, 2005 is now at risk, highlighted the EU's chief negotiator at Cancun, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
Both Lamy and Italian Foreign Trade Junior Minister Adolfo Urso said it was necessary to overhaul the WTO organisation while the EU reaffirmed "its commitment to the multilateral trade system."
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