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August 29, 2002, 9:00 a.m. Where Tomorrow Never Comes Farmers from developing countries demand trade liberalization. By Nick Schulz

JOHANNESBURG — "Unfortunately, Africans don't think about the future. They think only about today."

That's what Mike Hauser told me during the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD). Hauser would know. He's spent a good deal of time in Africa as the founder and owner of Purple Rhino Imports, a mom and pop enterprise that buys arts and crafts in Africa and sells them to Americans looking for unique, quirky goods.

"The majority of Africans are victims of corrupt governments who steal from them, steal the aid money that's supposed to go to them, and make it impossible to build businesses or turn their efforts into dollars. That's why most of them don't think about tomorrow and only think about today. The system doesn't help them."

This may sound like someone from the Cato Institute talking. But the salt-and-pepper bearded Hauser is no disciple of David Ricardo. He now lives in Phoenix but he was born in Seattle and remains true to that city's progressive roots. He and his family were Roman Catholic missionaries in Africa when he figured he could move back to the U.S. but still do something useful to help Africans — so he started a business that tries to support African artisans, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs by finding markets for their goods in the U.S. He's not a huge fan of President Bush, he abhors companies that employ sweatshop labor, and generally thinks the U.S. pollutes too much and needs to do more to protect the environment. In other words, he's a classic bleeding heart.

"Africans are as entrepreneurial and ambitious as anybody on the planet," Hauser says. "What these people need is jobs."

And who are these industrious Africans that Hauser is talking about? Some of them were part of a group of farmers from the developing world who marched to the WSSD on Wednesday, making demands from governments in the developed world. But these farmers, unlike some of their counterparts in Europe and, sadly, the United States, weren't demanding handouts. Instead, they were asking for the removal of barriers to trade that they say make it impossible for them to compete in the global marketplace.

"We are asking governments to listen to us and we are asking them to remove the subsidies, supports, and regulations that make it impossible for us to sell what we grow," said Rose Nkosi, the South African head of the Informal Business Forum, a group that promotes trade liberalization efforts for the developing world.

Marching two miles to the WSSD site from George Lea Park in Sandton, a Johannesburg suburb, farmers from India, the Philippines, Kenya, and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa joined hands to call for greater freedom. Their call was directed at their own governments, but almost as importantly it was directed at the governments of Europe and the United States, whose representatives are gathered here.

"We want the freedom to grow what we want, when we want, with what technology we want, and without trade-distorting subsidies or tariffs," said Barun Mitra, a farm activist from New Delhi who brought two-dozen farmers from India.

The WSSD has for several days been abuzz with talk of possible trade agreements among participating nations. To that end, these farmers were hoping to let Europe and the rest of the developed world know that biotech crops are not to be feared, but instead will "help them do more with less," said Mitra. The European Union currently props up its farmers with billions in agricultural subsidies and, more perniciously, keeps out foreign goods with restrictions on genetically modified foods — all to the detriment of Africans and others in developing countries.

But the United States is currently leading a charge here in Johannesburg to phase out all agricultural supports over five years. Meanwhile, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is entering a complaint to the World Trade Organization against the European Union. Zoellick says the EU's moratorium on genetically modified imports is a restraint to trade and a violation of WTO agreements, a position supported by the farmers who marched on Wednesday.

It is the cynical position of some that summits such as the WSSD are colossal wastes of time, long on platitudes and short on helping people. And it's true that they can be. But as trade emerges as a central focus of the Johannesburg meeting, there is hope for a constructive outcome, one that can help lead to genuine sustainable development. It would be an outcome that will help Africans and other poor people stop thinking only about today, and begin to embrace tomorrow.

— Nick Schulz is the editor of TechCentralStation.com.