Trade talks are doomed, say African ministers

Key global trade talks in Mexico next month will openly expose the differences between the West and developing nations and are already doomed to fail, African ministers and trade chiefs warned yesterday.

There is little agreement between industrialised nations and those grouped as least developed countries (LDCs) over a wide range of issues -- stretching from subsidies to US and European farmers, to greater access to markets, they said.

Agricultural trade and access to cheaper drugs for a crippling AIDS pandemic will be high on Africa's agenda during the ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, which is expected to put a seal on issues agreed at the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation.

"The big question is the issue of agricultural subsidies," said Mr Wiseman Nkuhlu, a senior economic adviser to South African President Thabo Mbeki.

"If there is no movement or commitment on the part of the developed countries to do something to reduce the subsidies that really impact negatively on African exports, that will be really disastrous for Africa."

Mr Nkuhlu, who is also chief executive of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) - the continent's economic rescue plan - said US and EU subsidies on cotton and sugar had devastated economies of poor states like Mozambique, Angola and Burkina Faso.

Zambia's trade and industry minister, Mr Dipak Patel, said Africa saw the progressive nature of subsidy reductions in Europe as too long drawn out and so harmful to the continent's growth.

He added that African states were appalled by proposals from developed countries to give multinationals the power to override sovereign states when trade disputes emerged. "Trying to make multinationals more sovereign than independent countries, to supersede sovereign states, is ridiculous, it is far-fetched," Mr Patel said.

He had little hope for any constructive developments at the Cancun talks. "I am going to Cancun... but I don't see much happening there to be honest. We are not going to come to an agreement on these issues [that affect Africans]," he said.

South Africa's trade minister, Mr Alec Erwin, said last week that Cancun would be rough and also expressed pessimism that an deal could be reached. Tanzania's trade minister, Mr Juma Ngasongwa, saw a danger in Africans not agreeing to anything in Mexico, but being forced to sign a last-minute deal they did not understand very well. "Ultimately we will be made to make decisions that will impact negatively on us," he said.  - (Reuters)