Summary
IT was only a few months ago that United Nations secretary- general Kofi Annan urged the elimination of agricultural subsidies, warning that they posed a serious threat to the future of the world. Such subsidies, he said, skewed market forces, blocked the exports of poor countries to world markets and destroyed the environment.
It was music to the ears of New Zealand politicians and producers, who have been arguing against subsidies for years, especially since we ditched our own in the mid-1980s. The breakthrough at the world trade talks at the weekend will have been sweet music too, given that the agreement reached is being hailed as the end of a deadlock which has gripped trade for half a century.See the full content of this document
Extract
Real Free Trade Coming Our Way
Of course not everything will turn rosy overnight. Any final agreement, for example, will not be in place until 2007. And the agreement t...
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