The US and EU must stop subsidizing their farmers to produce excess goods if they are to keep their promises to make world trade fairer for developing countries, the aid agency Oxfam said in a report released yesterday.
Although rich countries have pledged to eliminate export subsidies by 2016, they have used other, hidden forms of support for their own farmers, encouraging them to produce too much and then dump the goods on world markets at below production cost, the charity said in a 63-page report.
"Rich countries are dodging the commitments they've made to reduce subsidies that hurt poor farmers overseas," said Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair Campaign. "At the same time, they're forcing poor countries to open their markets to unfairly subsidized produce."
Global attention is being focused on Africa by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is pushing his agenda of tackling poverty in the continent. Last week, G-8 finance ministers made a historic agreement to cancel more that US$40 billion worth of debt owed by the world's poorest nations, most of which are in Africa.
According to Oxfam, total support being paid by rich countries to their farmers, now at US$250 billion a year, is still at the same level in real terms as in 1986.
This means that developed countries are still producing too much agricultural produce which is then dumped -- or sold at below the cost of production -- on world markets, undermining farmers in poorer states, Oxfam said.
The US and EU have used "creative accounting" in WTO negotiations -- which aim to produce a trade liberalization agreement at a December meeting in Hong Kong -- to continue making large subsidy payments to their farmers, the report said.
"This duplicity threatens to turn the whole round of development talks into a farce," Charveriat said. "This is a scandalous betrayal of the developing countries that put their faith in the WTO system."
Washington pays out US$6.6 billion a year to its farmers in hidden export subsidies -- more than 200 hundred times what it declares to the WTO, according to Oxfam's calculations.
Brussels pays US$5.2 billion, or four times its reported amount, the group said.
But EU spokesman Fabian Delcros stressed that its farm subsidies are transparent and that the EU has proposed phasing out export subsidies provided that others show a similar commitment.
"We have been the one who put export subsidies on the table ...We don't spend one extra penny from what is mentioned," he said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)