BANGOR – A delegation of Mainers who attended last week’s fifth ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico, on Tuesday called the collapse of the high-level trade talks a limited victory for developing nations.

The trade negotiations collapsed Sunday, the final day of meetings in Cancun, after delegates from developing nations walked out in protest over divisive issues ranging from eliminating farm subsidies for rich nations to lowering trade barriers among poor nations to international rules protecting foreign investments.

During a news conference at their headquarters on Park Street, Jack McKay and Bjorn Claeson of Peace through Interamerican Community Action, or PICA, said that the failure of the negotiations meant that the status quo would be maintained, at least for now.

PICA attended the conference as an accredited nongovernmental organization, or NGO.

The developing nations, led by Brazil, South Africa, India and China, essentially said, “Enough is enough and we’re not going to take it anymore,” McKay said. “It was a victory in the sense that it’s not going to get worse.”

But McKay added that the failed talks also meant people worldwide would continue to suffer under policies detrimental to them developed largely by the rich and the powerful, namely the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan.

Perhaps more importantly, Claeson said, was that developing nations for the first time banded together and became a force to be reckoned with.

PICA’s three-member delegation, which also included volunteer Meredith DeFrancesco, was frustrated by their limited access to decision-makers and important meetings, Claeson noted, but despite that gained some valuable insight into the WTO’s inner workings.

On Tuesday, McKay and Claeson voiced outrage at the “bully” tactics employed by the so-called Quad Countries, namely the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Union, that wanted greater access to developing countries so they could expand markets for their multinational corporations.

During the high-level trade talks, representatives from 146 WTO member states sought to develop new global trade rules. The negotiations in Cancun were expected to focus on agriculture, intellectual property rights and a variety of other issues, including investor rights and government purchasing.

Before they left for Cancun, the PICA delegation expressed concerns that the WTO was “becoming a de facto global government with powers far greater than ever before given to any international body.”

WTO’s rulings are so powerful they take precedence over all other international agreements and apply to laws at every level of governance, PICA said.

Group members expressed concerns about the potential loss of sovereignty in regard to the ongoing negotiations regarding General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS.

While the 1995 GATS removed trade barriers for companies and individuals in the service sectors of the global economy, the ongoing 2000 GATS negotiations were expected to go far beyond that.

Negotiating documents from many of the United States’ trading partners – including the European Union – ask that the U.S. agree to: eliminate state oversight of insurance and other financial service regulations; privatize and deregulate alcohol and tobacco distribution and sales; privatize thousands of municipal water systems; and eliminate 44 specifically identified state laws.