“This trade policy report sets out to understand and demystify the failed September 2003 World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. The collection begins with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda arguing that what Africans really want is more opportunities to trade rather than increased development aid. Faizel Ismail gives an insider’s insight into what happened at Cancun and why. Peter Draper and Dr Razeen Sally consider how to get the tottering WTO back on course. They paint the background against which African countries must make tough trade choices, by examining the internal dynamics of the world’s two economic powerhouses, the United States and the European Union. Dr Meir Pugatch critically examines the other supposed ‘success’: the resolution of a two-year standoff to allow poor countries to override pharmaceutical patents to produce or import life-saving medicines. Mills Soko and Mzukisi Qobo
scrutinise the Africa Group at the WTO. They examine the role that this group played at Cancun, analyse the awkward position of South Africa within the Africa Group, and
outline the prospects and challenges facing African countries in the WTO in the post-Cancun period.Steven Gruzd explores what African countries have to do to improve export capacity: comply with stringent health and safety standards, modernise outdated farming methods and resuscitate crumbling, inadequate infrastructure.”
