One fact haunts the World Trade Organisation talks taking place in Hong Kong this week and puts the progress made over the summer on debt relief into perspective. According to a UN estimate, the $50 billion or so given annually by developed countries to poor nations is less than what the developed world spends on agricultural protection.
It is estimated that the average subsidy for each cow in Europe - about €2 - exceeds the daily income of half the world's population. This protection stunts economic development by depriving poor nations of income in the market for agricultural produce, a market that is their only chance of prosperity.
In its 10 year history the WTO has brought much economic benefit by reducing trade barriers across a range of goods and services. But agriculture is one of the outstanding areas where its success has been limited. The present so-called Doha Development round of talks aims to address this, and also to show that the WTO's agenda is consistent with the interests of the world's poor.
Progress in removing barriers to trade in agriculture was always going to be difficult. Farming is geographically concentrated, and therefore politically powerful. Governments and farmers both gain from the tax revenues and higher prices that subsidies yield. Those who suffer from subsidies are either farmers in developing countries, who have no vote in our elections, or consumers who are geographically and politically diffuse.
The momentum of trade liberalisation has been strong in the last decade, leading to liberalisation in several important sectors. As far as developing nations are concerned, there is a danger that in coming days this momentum will run out before the issue reaches the platform. More than any other country, Ireland knows how important agriculture was in sustaining its economy in its infancy. The Cap has extended long beyond that period because a consensus existed that the cost of higher prices and subsidies was justified if it helped to underpin life in rural Ireland.
Growing awareness about the consequences of the policy for the Third World, combined with the declining importance of agriculture to our economy, is placing the Cap in a new context. In Ireland, continued full employment and prosperity make it a good time to strengthen the transition to a new and sustainable basis for economic life in rural Ireland. As for Hong Kong, electoral considerations are likely to make immediate concessions unlikely. But the WTO has always succeeded in slow and incremental steps. What is vital is that the outcome of Hong Kong does not block the way for later progress toward freer and fairer trade.