Poor nations demand fairer world trade

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Officials from the world's 49 poorest countries have started talks in Zanzibar to try to shape any further liberalisation in the World Trade Organisation in their own interests.

They are concerned that they are being forced to open up their markets while the West is not opening up to them.

They will consider a proposal that they should not enter new rounds of trade negotiations until the commitments made by the developed world to them in the past are honoured.

The authorities are wary of protests in the old town of Zanzibar

Tanzania's Trade Minister, Idi Simba, told the BBC that Europe and the US subsidise their agricultural sectors, while lecturing poor countries not to do the same.

"We know we are not getting a fair deal," he said, pointing out that Europe had previously promised to reduce its agricultural subsidies by 2000.

Agriculture is the biggest employer and earner in many African countries and economists say that exporting food could be one of the fastest ways to boost living standards.

Broken rules

The world's poorest 49 countries account for less than 1% of world exports and they think the developed world should be able to afford their demands.

"We are confronting a time where 600 million people, one-tenth of the population of this globe, are finding it increasingly difficult in their endeavor to lead a decent life," said S Rahama, the chief delegate from Bangladesh.

After talks stalled in Seattle in 1999, the WTO is meeting again this November in Doha, Qatar.

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In a draft declaration to be signed on Tuesday, the countries' finance ministers are expected to express concern "at the exclusion and marginalization" caused by current WTO rules.

None of the poor countries has been able to accede to the WTO since its establishment in 1995, and the poor nations' percentage of world trade has dropped. The least developed countries are defined by the UN as countries with an average per capita income of less than $900 a year.

Haiti is the only country in this category in the western hemisphere.

There are also a number of Pacific islands represented but apart from Bangladesh, the poorest countries with the largest populations are all in Africa.

Following the riots in Genoa and the last WTO meeting in Seattle, the meeting's spokesman, Hassan Mitawi, told the French news agency AFP: "We don't expect any protestors here...but we are not going to take things easily."