US and EU called out for protecting their own subsidies while demanding world’s poorest citizens be pushed back into starvation

Food sovereignty campaigners protest against the WTO in Bali, Indonesia this week. (Twitpic / @JHilary)In announcing a final agreement in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday morning, head of the World Trade Organization Roberto Azevedo, said: “For the first time in our history, the WTO has truly delivered.”

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Unfortunately, say critics, what the deal is certain to “deliver” is more pain and suffering for the world’s poorest people and farmers at the expense of the world’s largest and most powerful nations and corporations.

Anti-poverty groups and food sovereignty advocates across the world were pushing off pronouncements like Azevedo’s, saying that the agreement is a failure when it comes to fairness, poverty reduction, environmental protections, and the alleviation of hunger across the globe.

Among those slamming the final deal, director of the World Development Movement (WDM) Nick Dearden said the Bali agreement is designed to serve the interests of “transnational corporations not the world’s poor.”

“Here in Bali,” he continued, “social movements, trade unions and campaign groups have supported the efforts of developing countries to get a deal which moves the agenda away from a pro-corporate charter and towards something that asserts the rights and needs of the majority of the world’s population.”

And John Hilary, executive director of the UK-based War on Want, slammed the deal:

Maude Barlow, speaking on behalf of the Council of Canadians, expressed equal outrage:

Though the so-called “peace clause” was agreed to, as previous Common Dreams reporting indicated, the compromise does almost nothing to protect the world’s poor over the long-term. In fact, critics warn, the so-called “compromise” sets up a ticking clock by which the poorest nations will be forced to throw their small farmers under the bus in the name of global capitalism.

A street market in the old quarters of Delhi. India sought safeguards, at the WTO, from US agricultural surpluses. (Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters)