The Wire

Tomorrow, trade ministers from around the world will head to Geneva to nut out the latest round of free trade negotiations for the World Trade Organisation. Non-government organizations such as Action Aid International have been critical of the draft modality papers – the starting points for negotiations – that have been released ahead of this week’s meeting. The group claims that the documents show that the European Union and the United States have not gone far enough in stamping out subsidies to their farmers, which effectively place farmers in poor countries at an unfair disadvantage when they are trying to compete in the global marketplace.