Lula's Next Big Fight

In the world of trade negotiations, Cancún is already legendary. In September, as Caribbean waves lapped the beach outside their hotel, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim handed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick a new set of demands from a coalition of 22 developing countries, led by Brazil, China and India. If the U.S., the E.U. and other developed nations failed to slash their hundreds of billions in agriculture tariffs and subsidies, the poorer nations would refuse to discuss issues dear to the rich, like investment rules and intellectual-property rights.

Zoellick stood up, Amorim recalls, and said that while...