Dear Log,
«This argument infuriates Blair and Brown. They say they have moved on the budget and are offering a straightforward deal: stop spending 40% of the money on supporting farmers and we'll increase our contribution. Brown spelled out the UK position in a speech last week. "What better signal could Europe send of its commitment to wider economic reform than tackling wasteful subsidies that consume 40% of the European budget, even at a time when agriculture accounts for just 2% of the European economy?"I somehow think the "developing countries" weren't exactly brimming with faith in the honesty of the western countries beforehand.[...]Much of the opprobrium has been attached to the EU, but the US is just as bad. Cotton producers in West Africa, for example, are being impoverished by America's system of increasing direct payments to its cotton farmers when the world price goes down. As a consequence, the farmers produce more in order to drive down prices and thus pick up a bigger cheque from Washington.
[...]The good news, though, is that developing countries have woken up to the fact that the west speaks with a forked tongue and have decided they won't be fooled again.»
--"Britain's stubbornness may help the world's poor"
