WTO member countries must return to the negotiating table next week if they are serious in their promise to make global trade rules work for the poor, aid agency Oxfam said today.
"Cancun collapsed because the EU and US refuse to reform their agricultural sector and the EU, Canada and Japan kept pushing for controversial new issues to be included in the talks," says Mr Brian Scott, Oxfam Ireland's director.
"A frozen WTO is disastrous for everyone. The prize of a fairer, better global trading system is too big to lose because of one failed summit.
"The new 'G20' group of developing countries is not a threat to the EU and the US, but rather it is an opportunity to make more effective and faster progress."
He said the European Union and the United States could break the deadlock they created by making concessions on agriculture.