US and EU have failed world's poor: Commonwealth

The United States and Europe have failed the developing world by letting global trade talks drag on and insisting on agricultural subsidies that keep 160 million people in poverty, the Commonwealth said on Monday.
The Doha round of world trade talks had been billed as one that would finally benefit the poorest nations of the world, but after nearly six years they have made little progress. Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said Europe and the United States bore a great deal of responsibility for that, and could and should do a lot more to dismantle unfair subsidies which kept many millions of people trapped in poverty.
"If an African leader decided to manufacture television sets at five times the world price, he would be laughed off the planet, yet agricultural products can be produced in Europe at five times the world price and no one says it's a real problem."
Over the years the talks have appeared to break down several times, although trade diplomats have recently expressed guarded optimism after signs the United States could be willing to make concessions over farm subsidies.
McKinnon said the West had let domestic political issues dominate an area of foreign and development policy where they could make a difference, and warned that failure to act would only rebound on rich nations.
"If you take agricultural subsidies off Europe and United States, you lift 160 million people out of poverty tomorrow," McKinnon said in an interview in the Indian capital New Delhi.
"If the people of Europe are really worried continually about economic refugees, well you better keep on worrying, because as long as you keep those countries poor by your own subsidies, you are going to keep getting economic refugees," he told Reuters. "The same will apply to United States and to some extent to Japan too. They are the players that could make a real difference to the world."
McKinnon was in India for a meeting of parliamentarians from the 53-member group of mostly ex-British Empire nations, which represents about 1.8 billion people and a fifth of global trade but has no formal decision-making powers.