MEXICO CITY (AFP) - Mexico vowed to fight state subsidies on agricultural products, setting the stage for a heated battle between industrialized and developing countries at an upcoming World Trade Organization (news - web sites) meeting in Cancun.
"I will state Mexico's position against huge subsidies that developed countries offer to their agricultural concerns," President Vicente Fox (news - web sites) said in his annual address to Congress.
Fox, who will open the WTO meeting on September 10, assured lawmakers that Mexico will raise its voice "in support of social equality and just commercial exchanges that foster economic development."
The Cancun meeting has been called to take stock of the overall round of talks launched two years ago in Doha that aim to tear down more barriers to global trade, with an accord scheduled by January 1, 2005.
Developing countries argue that the more than 300 billion dollars spent each year by industrialized nations to help their domestic food producers prevents them competing on developed markets, but also on their home market.
Delegates from 146 WTO member nations and representatives of about 980 non-governmental organizations are expected to take part in the conference scheduled to conclude on September 14.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.