During the fifth ministerial of the World Trade Organisation, the efforts of the United States and the European Union to maintain the current inequitable global trading system provoked the formation of the G 21, a block of countries led by Brazil, India, South Africa, and China. While our enthusiasm is tempered by our disagreement with its endorsement of the panacea of greater market access to northern markets as a solution to the inequities of global agricultural trade, we nevertheless see the G 21 as a positive development. This is not, unfortunately, the view of the US and the EU, which have initiated a campaign to neutralize, isolate, and destroy the new formation.