America will not wait for the won't-do countries

The final minutes of the World Trade Organization session in Cancun were symptomatic of the whole meeting: we stalled after representatives of the least developed, African, and Caribbean countries reported that their colleagues had rejected any negotiation to update the 1947 rules on customs procedures.

The breakdown occurred over measures that would have simply facilitated trade and helped land-locked countries by ensuring prompt release of goods, publication of procedures, and timely and fair rulings on customs questions. These commonsense steps are in the interest of all; their rejection was a political statement. Sadly, this decision was emblematic of a broader culture of protest that defined victory in terms of political acts rather than economic results.

As Luis Ernesto Derbez, Mexico's foreign minister and chairman of the meeting, closed the session, representatives of influential developing countries finally rushed forward to say they wanted to keep going. They correctly recognised that the draft text offered an excellent opportunity to press the European Union to eliminate agricultural export subsidies; to achieve big cuts in farm subsidies in the US, EU and other countries; to impose a ceiling on unbelievably high Japanese tariffs; and to open agricultural markets for developed and developing countries alike. Yet they were too late.

The previous evening, country after country had scorned the draft text, the negotiating process and other countries. The United Nations General Assembly has its role, but it does not offer an effective model for trade negotiations. A few ministers pointed out that increasingly radical rhetoric would make it harder for all - especially developing country groups with many smaller members - to consider realistic compromises. Countries that feel victimised are unlikely to agree to anything.

Cancun could have followed a different course. Only weeks before, we had worked together to resolve the difficult issue of ensuring that poor developing countries could gain access to low-cost, life-saving medicines while protecting intellectual property. But at Cancun the naysayers' tactics thwarted those who would have cut agricultural subsidies and tariffs, triggering reform of farm policy in the US, EU, Japan, Canada and elsewhere. They passed up an opportunity to open developing country markets gradually to other developing countries. They stymied global sourcing and production networks, which integrate developed and developing country businesses to mutual benefit. And they walked away from rules on openness and transparency that fight favouritism and corruption.

Key mid-level developing countries employed the rhetoric of resistance as a tactic both to put pressure on developed countries and to divert attention from their own trade barriers. India's average bound agricultural tariff is 112 per cent, Egypt's 62 per cent and Brazil's 37 per cent - compared with a US average of 12 per cent. Their average bound tariffs on manufactured goods are at least 10 times larger than the US average of 3 per cent. We should be able to reduce these barriers while protecting the poorest nations and providing flexibilities for special sensitivities in the bigger countries.

After the US pressed the EU to develop an agricultural framework that could achieve farm subsidy and tariff cuts far beyond those achieved in the last global trade negotiation, we asked Brazil and other agricultural powers to work with us. Brazil declined, turning instead to India, which has never supported opening markets, so as to emphasise north-south division not global agricultural reform.

Smaller developing countries resisted the reduction of US and EU tariffs because they calculated that they would lose the advantages offered by special US and EU programmes that eliminate tariffs only for their exports. Unfortunately, these well-meaning trade preference programmes have undermined the push for two-way openings, perpetuating dependency.

Four African countries insisted on "compensation" of between Dollars 250m and Dollars 1bn (Pounds 153m and Pounds 610m) annually, and unilateral elimination of cotton subsidies. Over the course of 50 years, global trade negotiations have progressed because countries could trade off cuts across products and even sectors to achieve a balanced result. The US has no export subsidies on cotton and proposed the elimination of all export subsidies. We committed to cut domestic cotton subsidies as part of an overall package that would also have reduced European and Chinese cotton subsidies, along with all agricultural subsidies. Instead of making cotton a symbol, we wanted to make development a reality through concrete results for cotton farmers, exporters and manufacturers of cotton products, along with all farmers.

The tactics of confrontation included an assault on one of the few devices that the WTO can use to prod its 148 members towards consensus: presenting a chairperson's text for discussion and negotiation. Brazil, India and others refused even to work off an agricultural text drafted by the Uruguayan WTO chairman and forwarded by the WTO's Thai director-general. Even after Singapore's tireless minister had worked non-stop with all parties to prepare a new agricultural draft reflecting a balanced compromise, Brazil and its colleagues presented a massive list of required changes. If they were serious about negotiating a compromise for 148 countries, they overplayed their hand by failing to signal that intention. They returned home without any cuts in subsidies and tariffs.

As Chairman Derbez closed the Cancun meeting, he asked countries to reassess prospects by December 15. We know well what developing countries are demanding, but have not heard whether more competitive developing economies will cut their high barriers. We do not know whether other developing countries that blocked action in Cancun will now accept packages that ask little or nothing of them. The US stands ready to work with the draft text across the full agenda. As the Doha negotiations drift into next year, however, we recognise that a new European Commission may reflect different perspectives

Americas

The Americas, or America,are lands in the Western Hemisphere also known as the New World.
In the English language, the Americas refers to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, whereas America refers almost exclusively to the United States of America.

As a landmass colonized and settled by Europeans, the Americas share many common cultural traits, most notably the adherence to Christianity and speaking Indo-European languages (aside from the indigenous languages of the Americas).

The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.5% of the human population (about 900 million people).

United States

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km2) and with over 310 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest both by land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2010 GDP of $14.780 trillion (23% of nominal global GDP and 20% of global GDP at purchasing power parity).
Indigenous peoples of Asian origin have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

Through the 19th century, the United States displaced native tribes, acquired the Louisiana territory from France, Florida from Spain, part of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom, Alta California and New Mexico from Mexico, Alaska from Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over the expansion of the institution of slavery and states' rights provoked the Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending, and it is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.