Monday, August 08, 2005

Debt relief, trade justice and more aid were requests of NGOs and poor countries to the G8 at their summit this past July. While some debt relief and more aid were promised, trade justice in the form of removal of trade barriers and subsidies by developed countries was not achieved at all.
This article makes the case for an end to subsidies which rich countries such as US provide to their own farmers so giving them an huge advantage over farmers from poor countries on the world market.
This results in farmers of poor countries struggling to survive as they're overwhelmed by competition from richer countries and low prices. Also these farmers tend their farms manually, while those from rich countries often use mechanised methods. For example, there are about 25,000 American cotton farmers while Western African has over 5 million people who owe their living to cotton.