For most developing countries agriculture is the backbone of the economy. The WTO's Mr Moore admits that developing countries are getting a raw deal. US officials freely admit that their farm lobby is enormously powerful in Washington, while just about every agricultural product that the EU's exporters have on offer is directly or indirectly subsidised. Moreover, political reality means that it is impossible for governments to ignore the plight of those western farmers struggling to keep their heads above water even in a highly subsidised regime. Freer trade will create losers and winners.
Financial worries mean western farmers are among the groups most prone to suicide.
After much anguish, previous talks in Uruguay eventually came up with a formula for scaling down agricultural protectionism. But that still left developing countries penalised bypeak tariffs, whereby the levy on certain imports are much higher than the average duties on all goods, and tariff escalation, where commodities and raw materials have lower duties than processed goods. Peak tariffs tend to be applied to products of major or potential export interest to developing countries, such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, fruit and vegetables, while tariff escalation means that while the west is happy to have free trade in cocoa beans, which it does not produce, it levies high duties on chocolate, which it does. Many think the world community must come up with a fairer system. And they will also argue that food security is guaranteed by a cautious approach to phasing out domestic support in poor countries.