At a U.N. conference, 44 developing countries decided to work together to pressure richer nations into open markets.
By Associated Press
Published June 19, 2004
SAO PAULO, Brazil - Delegates from 180 nations wrapped up a weeklong conference Friday with calls for trade liberalization to help developing countries improve living standards. But critics said an opportunity was lost to demand more from multinational corporations setting up shop in poor countries.
"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 mutual 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 44 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.
Edward Rugomayo, Uganda's minister of trade and tourism, warned that the new talks won't have a big impact unless new nations join the group.
"Our efforts to improve south-south trade are very commendable, but now we need to see it materialize, and that will require a lot of hard work," he said.
Humanitarian groups said delegates lost an opportunity at the conference to demand that multinational corporations promote social development and protect the environment when setting up shop in poor countries.
ActionAid International of London said a declaration addressing corporate responsibility "hardly touches on the issue of regulation and control of multinational companies."
ActionAid "believes that it is the obligation of the United Nations to help develop binding international regulation on multinational companies to make sure they do not work to the detriment of poor people," said spokesman Peter Kamalingin.
The United States opposed a mandatory international corporate code, saying corporations must already obey laws in the countries where they operate and extend benefits such as jobs, training and tax revenue with their presence.
Some delegates said the final declaration of the U.N. conference fell short in how it addressed other pressing Third World issues.
"We had a much higher level of expectations in areas such as corporate responsibility, debt alleviation and trade financing," said Ransford Smith, Jamaica's ambassador to the World Trade Organization. "But we recognize that an outcome based on consensus requires compromise."
The U.N. conference in 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.
Ricupero said the next U.N. trade and development forum will be held in Africa in 2008. African delegates have not yet decided which country will host the event.
