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Earth summit bogs down in bitter trade debate

Darren Schuettler in Johannesburg

Rich and poor nations argued over scrapping billions of dollars in subsidies to Western farmers on Wednesday but made some headway at the Earth Summit in other efforts to help the world's poor.

Environmentalists slammed the European Union for not backing developing countries during the talks and the United States came under fire for resisting clear targets for improving sanitation, promoting renewable energy and increasing Third World aid.

US President George W Bush will not attend the summit, although about 100 other world leaders will come next week.

The trade debate spilled onto the streets outside the tightly guarded conference centre in the wealthy suburb of Sandton, where 200 poor farmers and local street traders from nearby shanty townships shouted slogans demanding freer trade.

"We want the freedom to grow what we want, when we want, with what technology we want, and without trade-distorting subsidies or tariffs," said Barun Mitra, an Indian farm activist leading about 30 farmers from his country.

There was progress on Wednesday between rich and poor states on demands by Third World countries for more aid finance, and UN organisers also reported progress in setting firm targets and deadlines for improving the state of healthcare and fish stocks among a vast array of proposals on the summit agenda.

But delegates were divided over the billions of dollars in subsidies paid to Western farmers that restrict poorer farmers from selling to lucrative Western markets.

John Ashe, a Caribbean delegate who has been brokering a compromise, said they agreed on "99 per cent" of aid proposals during late night talks. But he said ministers or even heads of government may have to get involved next week if the deadlock over subsidies and how to characterise globalisation continues.

The United States has drawn fire for a new Farm Bill set to boost subsidies to domestic farmers, whereas radical plans to reform Europe's farm support policy have left the continent bitterly divided over French-led opposition to the plan.

WEALTHY COWS

Rich countries gave about $54 billion in development aid in 2001 but paid more than $350 billion to their own farmers -- or as one World Bank official noted: "The average cow is supported by three times the level of income of a poor person in Africa".

Many delegates said the United States was leading resistance to setting targets beyond a deal at the World Trade Organisation in Doha last year to phase out export subsidies and to make "substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support".

One delegate said: "The world economy's in worse shape than last year so rich nations reckon that a restatement of Doha is all that developing nations can expect."

The environmental group Friends of Earth said the United States was the "single biggest block on progress at the Earth Summit". But it also took aim at the European Union for a lack of leadership on trade, energy and corporate accountability.

"On many key issues, the EU is part of the problem rather than the solution. The time for the EU to stand up for people and the environment is now," the group said.

The EU's Development Commissioner Poul Nielson defended the bloc's tactics, however, saying efforts to agree on more than was settled at Doha could lead to dangerous confusion.

"Reforming agricultural policy has to be done progressively. Big leaps forward may lead to major reverses," he said.

The 10-day World Summit on Sustainable Development, which began on Monday, gathers delegates from nearly 200 states hoping for an action plan to ease poverty while preserving the planet.

Iraq, target of threatened US military action to oust its leader Saddam Hussein, was elected as one of the five summit vice-presidents from the Asian group of nations on Wednesday.

TURN WORDS INTO ACTION

Delegates on Wednesday tackled ways to quench the growing thirst of a growing world population and provide sanitation to billions of the world's poor who do without either every day.

The were expected to reaffirm a UN goal of halving the proportion of the population without clean water by 2015.

African statesman Nelson Mandela was due to launch a project on water on Wednesday, bringing a touch of star quality to a meeting so far lacking the glamour of its predecessor 10 years ago in Rio de Janeiro. Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was the latest celebrity no-show when he pulled out due to illness.

Nearly one in five people or 1.1 billion men, women and children have no access to fresh water, according to the UN, while a staggering 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation.

"To service the human community of India with sanitation and water is a Herculean task. The world community should come forward to help us through the UN organisations," Indian Environment Minister T R Baalu told Reuters. India saw the driest start to the monsoon season in 15 years in July.

South Africa is leading a drive to adopt a further target for halving those lacking adequate sanitation -- an initiative resisted by the United States and some other nations.

"Targets are worth discussing but they are only lofty rhetoric. Targets do not save one child from water-borne diseases," a US official said in defence of Washington.

The leaders of South Africa, Brazil and Sweden said words must become action. Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Thabo Mbeki, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Goran Persson said:

"A quantum leap in the struggle to eliminate poverty and move toward a sustainable future is within each."

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