After Cancun, it's a new playing field.

In a world where the gap between rich and poor has widened, the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, last September may have been foreordained. There are 140 WTO member nations, and more than 100 are classified as "developing" countries by World Bank standards.

The talks appeared to be in trouble as soon as conference chair Luis Ernesto Derbez (Mexico) released the negotiating text to delegates. Developing countries were dismayed to find that many of their pre-submitted positions had been left out. Some of these positions were part of a detailed agenda that had been negotiated among 70 developing countries in preparation for the conference.

Developing countries are seeking to reduce trade barriers and export subsidies that impede the sale of their agricultural products on the global market. The draft ministerial text contained language that would have allowed the United States and the European Union to merely recategorize their subsidies to a less trade-distorting status, rather than remove them.

Before the conference began, four African cotton growing countries asked WTO members to address the issue of high domestic cotton subsidies, specifically in the United States, which they felt were driving down the price of African cotton. The United States countered by pointing to competition from synthetic fibers, rather than subsidies, as the real problem. Kenya called the draft ministerial text, which reflected the U.S. perspective, "mildly put, quite disappointing."

Meanwhile, discussions on environment-focused trade issues were largely sidelined. A proposal to allow environmental treaty secretariats and the UN Environment Programme to observe some WTO negotiations was included in the draft text, though more contentious issues, such as eco-labeling and the relationship between WTO decisions and multilateral environmental agreements, were left out.

A remarkable outcome of the Cancun meetings was the developing countries' demonstration of the interest and organization necessary to challenge a process that has in the past been led, and dominated, primarily by a few industrialized countries.