The US and EU must stop subsidizing their farmers to produce excess goods if they are to keep their promises to make world trade fairer for developing countries, the aid agency Oxfam said in a report released yesterday.
Although rich countries have pledged to eliminate export subsidies by 2016, they have used other, hidden forms of support for their own farmers, encouraging them to produce too much and then dump the goods on world markets at below production cost, the charity said in a 63-page report.
"Rich countries are dodging the commitments they've made to reduce subsidies that hurt poor farmers overseas," said Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair Campaign. "At the same time, they're forcing poor countries to open their markets to unfairly subsidized produce."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2005/06/16/2003259543