CAP reform: welcome but not enough say MPs

The current round of global trade negotiations could collapse unless "political commitment and leadership" are forthcoming, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.

The international development committee has called on governments to renew their efforts in order to achieve a deal when they meet in Cancun in September.

"If political commitment and leadership are forthcoming a genuine development round can still be secured. Without this commitment, the round will collapse," the MPs conclude.

"The opportunity to provide leadership should be grasped, the responsibility accepted. The promises made at Doha must not turn out to have been empty, for all our sakes."

Whilst it does not right off hopes of a deal the committee warns that "signs have not been good" since the Doha round.

The committee welcomed the recent CAP reform agreement but called for more radical action on trade barriers.

"There must be substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support, export subsidies and tariffs, so that developing countries can trade their way out of poverty," said the committee.

"As a minimum, any agreement must end dumping. In the interim, developing countries must be permitted to protect themselves from dumping."

It also warned that the American government must act to curtail the powers of the US drugs giants.

"The US government must stand up to the pharmaceutical lobby and take its developmental responsibilities seriously," concluded the committee.