Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-24-Speech-3-250"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030924.6.3-250"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Madam President, Commissioner, the Dakota Indians have a wise saying: ‘when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount’. Things have not yet got quite that bad with the WTO, but what happened in Cancún is certainly a cause for concern. I too regard abandoning the negotiations more as a pyrrhic victory for the developing countries than as a success. Another interesting point here is the suggestion that the negotiations foundered on the rock of agricultural issues. How could that have been the case, though, when there were never to be any negotiations in the form of an official agriculture round? I too regard the EU proposal on agriculture as totally acceptable, even if many developing countries were looking for something more. It was still an excellent proposal. So what role did the United States play? It suited President Bush very well that there were no negotiations at all on agriculture, because reality would then have dawned on many countries. They would have then realised just who was putting the brakes on and that would have no doubt somewhat irritated the ‘coalition of the willing’ and those dependent on it.
Mexico accordingly had to break off negotiations before they had even started, and the United States is also more interested in bilateral treaties than multilateral ones. I have one more thing to say, however, about those who believe that they now need to mount a campaign against the NGOs. Firstly, they greatly overestimate the NGOs' power, and, secondly, they demonstrate what they ultimately think about participation by some areas of civil society. My advice to them is to close this particular can of worms before it leads to their own downfall."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples