Providing subsidies to some of the bigger developing countries which protest the U.S.’s unfair trade practices is not the way to justify subsidies and maintain status quo. Does the practice of reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers not apply to the U.S simply because it suggests it to the other countries? On the contrary, the U.S. should practice before it preaches the same to the other countries. Without doing so, it can only be accused of hypocrisy. One of the arguments that the U.S. uses to justify its subsidies is that without its farm commodity programs, the food prices for Americans would be too high and food availability would be insecure. In the U.S., people living in the rural areas have access to almost the same level and quality of service provision as those in the cities. Their incomes are relatively high, especially for farmers, agricultural land sizes are huge, and only a small portion of the population is dependent on agriculture. Compare and contrast this to the situation in most developing countries – incomes are lower, especially for farmers, as compared to other occupations, quality and provision of services is always better in the urban areas and the land sizes for farmers is small, and a huge section of the national population is dependent on agriculture for their subsistence. Providing subsidies to developed countries’ farmers only reduces the markets for the farm products from developing countries which already have to battle within their economy to be competitive in the world market. Added to this, if they have to compete with highly-subsidised farm products from developed countries which have better technology and skills to produce these products, their economy will collapse and millions of people will be affected only because the developed countries do not want to open their markets completely.

When formulating bills and national policies the governments of developed countries should not only think of the interests of their economy and people but as global citizens should be aware of the impacts these would have on the people of other lesser developed countries and act accordingly.