They can expect no help from the industrialized nations, he made
crystal clear:
"(The rich countries) are not ready to eliminate their support for
agriculture. They have not committed themselves to doing so in
international forums and do not believe that, as far as they Are
concerned, it would be to the developing countries' advantage.
Therefore," - he concluded soberly - "let us stop dreaming." This was
received with a standing ovation of the 500 conference delegates.
The conspiracy minded stipulate that France was actually merely seeking
to strengthen its bargaining chips. Finally, they go, it will accept
decoupling and modulation. But recent policy initiatives do not point
this way. France all but renationalized its beef markets, proposed to
continue dairy quotas till 2013, sought to index milk prices and
defended the much-reviled current sugar regime
These are bad news, indeed. Agriculture is a thorny issue within the EU
no less than outside it. A recessionary Germany has been bankrolling
sated and affluent French farmers for decades now. This has got to stop
and will - whether amicably, or acrimoniously.
The new members - most of them from heavily agrarian central and east
Europe - will demand equality sooner, or later.
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