[hedgetrimmer]

"The debate is over," said Celine Charveriat, head of the fair trade campaign at development charity Oxfam. "The United States must now move quickly to reform its programs and stop dumping cheap cotton onto world markets that undermine the livelihoods of poor farmers in the developing world."

So Viet Nam and Thailand can dump shrimp on US markets and thats ok, but if the US produces cotton more cheaply than third world countries, that isn't ok.

[o_zarkman44]

Washington lodged its appeal in October 2004 to WTO, whose 148 members set the rules for global commerce and are meant to fall into line with its decisions — or face potential trade sanctions from the winner if they fail to do so. Thursday's appeals body ruling is final.

148 WTO members voted to tell the USA we can't run our own country as we see fit. Final answer.
I say we show them the finger as our final answer.

[hedgetrimmer]

WTO lets "poor" countries push "rich" countries around.

Poor countries want "to build concrete content on development questions, specific commitments, concrete deadlines" from richer nations on agriculture and development issues, Kenyan Trade Minister Mukhisa Kituyi said.

"For developing countries and particular Africa ... trade is life," he said. "People don't appreciate when we say we need fair trade, we need abolition of farm subsidies. Our poverty in anchored on inbalanced trade

Manesser, who is set to present the poor nations' demands at the Mombasa talks, said a refusal by the west to concede would doom the Hong Kong ministerial to failure.

Is the WTO really about free trade?