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Cancun summit failed because The talks failed because rich and poor countries could not reach agreement on two key issues. The first and most contentious of these was agriculture. Rich countries were accused of hypocrisy for urging poor countries to open their markets but not being prepared to open their own - or reduce the huge subsidies to their farmers. In the end, the rich countries would not agree to the abolition of all export subsidies which make their agricultural products cheaper on world markets. There was also a great deal of opposition to European Union proposals for rules to govern investment by multinational companies in the developing world. Many countries felt that they could not agree to this without losing control of their industries, and argued that the WTO was not the appropriate forum for such discussions. There was opposition to including the new, so called ¡§Singapore Issues¡¨ , such as investments, competition and government procurement from developing countries led by India, Brazil and China. Some the issues that led to the failure of the talks are explained in detail below: