Madam, - Delegates at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancún must consider carefully the enormity of the decisions they are being asked to make. The lives of millions depend on their deliberations.
The human suffering behind the stark statistic of 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day or less - quoted by James Wolfensohn in his article in your edition of September 10th - is a terrible indictment of the politics of greed of the affluent "developed" world.
The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that subsidies paid to farmers by the US and EU cost the world's poorer countries $24 billion a year and that the abandonment of protectionist policies would introduce a further $40 billion into the economy of the developing world.
In other words the poor countries could trade their way out of trouble if only they were given the opportunity. The rich world, however, prefers to maintain its grip on the world's wealth by means that are manifestly unfair.
The price of our greed is being paid every day by thousands of children in poor countries who die needlessly from lack of clean water or because they succumb to diseases that are easily and cheaply treated. They have the constant pain of hunger in their bellies whilst their Western cousins eat themselves into obesity.
The alleviation of this suffering must rate as the single most urgent task facing the world today. The wrong decisions at Cancún could set humankind back a long way. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'SHEA, GOAL, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Cambodia, one of the poorest countries on the planet, and still recovering from its "killing fields" history, is this week formally joining the World Trade Organisation.
Part of the "admission fee" is that Cambodia's food import tariffs are capped at 80 per cent. This will provide only a little protection from rich country dumping for the four out of five Cambodians who depend on farming for a living.
Meanwhile, we in the EU, where only 3 per cent are farmers, are free to impose food tariffs as high as 252 per cent.
The prosperity of Irish farmers should not have to depend on trade rules containing such hidden obscenities. - Yours, etc.,
Dr BRIAN SCOTT, Chief Executive, Oxfam Limited, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2.