U.N. trade talks end with calls for change
By Tom Murphy
Associated Press Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil — Delegates from 180 nations wrapped up a weeklong U.N. trade and development conference yesterday with calls for a new commitment to trade liberalization to help poor countries improve living standards for the planet's have-nots.
"In a nutshell, the most important points of this meeting were acknowledgment of the new geography of trade and the new self-assertiveness of the developing countries," said Rubens Ricupero, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Ricupero said the biggest advance of the conference was a decision by 44 developing countries belonging to the Global System of Trade Preferences group to hold new negotiations on reducing their trade barriers.
Getting rid of the tariffs could help those countries grab a larger share of world trade, and any advances could be used to put pressure on richer countries to ease trade barriers and open markets to products from the developing world.
The GSTP countries agreed to start negotiating next year and hope to reach an agreement by 2006. They also want to sign up scores of new member countries to make the bloc stronger.
In a peaceful protest against U.S. and European Union agricultural subsidies, actors wearing oversized masks of U.S. President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac dumped cotton and sugar onto maps of Latin America and Africa just outside the forum site.
Humanitarian groups say the subsidies artificially lower worldwide commodities prices and prevent farmers from poor countries from getting a fair price for their products.
"By dumping sugar and cotton on the world markets, the E.U. and U.S. are depriving millions of people in developing countries of a way to make a living," said Gonzalo Fanjul, a spokesman for Oxfam International.
The U.N. conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil's hub of industry and finance, brought together leaders of mainly Latin American countries, plus trade ministers and development officials from around the world. It is held every four years.
