Adriano Campolina Soares, Terraviva, 23 January 2005

 The World Trade Organisation's ministerial conferences have demonstrated a considerable willingness on the part of developing countries to build alliances among themselves as a way of countering the hegemony of the rich countries during trade negotiations.

This willingness is extremely important since the core of the WTO is dominated by North America and Europe, insofar as the bilateral agreements between the United States and the European Union – the Blair House agreements – became the basis for concluding the Uruguay Round of GATT. This terrible start resulted in trade agreements openly favourable to the rich countries. The inequalities set into the WTO agreements reflected the overwhelming power of the rich countries. However, developing countries quickly learnt that redressing the unfairness found in the trade agreements meant adopting a new negotiating posture. The United States and the European Union had to be prevented from imposing their agreements on other members; at the same time, developing countries had to build solid alliances focused on specific negotiating proposals.