Scrap farming subsidies, say business leaders

For A Change, Dec, 2004 by Michael Smith

A GROUP of senior business executives has come out strongly in favour of abolishing agricultural subsidies in rich nations. The Caux Round Table (CRT) group welcomes the recent decision 'to seek an end to national subsidization of agricultural production', made at the Doha Round of negotiations on trade liberalization. The CRT says this decision lives up to the fifth of its Principles for Business, which calls for trade liberalization 'and to relax those domestic measures that unreasonably hinder global commerce'.

The world trade negotiators 'have moved the global system of commerce closer to a noble ethical ideal of providing opportunities and benefits for all', comments the CRT.

Domestic protection 'eliminates market opportunities for farmers in poor countries', says the CRT. 'Only through agricultural production, and the export of such production to waiting consumers, can those farmers and those poor nations earn income sufficient to fund a course of sustained economic growth, reducing poverty and improving lives.'