Sharks circle as "trade talks threaten bloodshed"
 You may have seen stuff in the news over the weekend about giant 10 ft sharks circling outside a meeting of the world's most powerful trade ministers in London. Let us explain: demonstrators from Oxfam International (including our very own shark from Generation Why HQ) were dressed up as rather spectacular rubber sharks (and one surfer with suitably shark-damaged surf-board) outside the London School of Economics, to "highlight the absence of developing countries" from vital world trade discussions. As The Times put it on Saturday, the demonstration illustrated how the "First World loan shark was biting into the surfboard of Third World development".
 Trade ministers from Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, the US, and the EU held a two-day meeting on Friday and Saturday, in an attempt to agree on key issues including agricultural reform. Before the talks, Oxfam called for a deal that worked for poor countries, which should include "meaningful cuts in rich countries' agricultural subsidies and improved market access for developing countries' farm products".
Despite the circling sharks, the "tortuously complex negotiations" failed to agree a draft World Trade Organisation deal (as an article in The Telegraph points out). In a statement today, Oxfam spokesperson Liz Stuart says that the "EU and the US have stuck to their inflexible positions" and expected "poor countries to move first... Any final deal needs to be judged on whether it promotes both poor countries' agriculture and their manufacturing sectors."
What you can do: put pressure on Mandelson to back up his words on trade.
posted at 12:13 PM
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