Developed countries urged not to undermine UNCTAD's role

Accra, April 18, GNA - A call has been made to developed countries to stop undermining the role of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in issues of global trade and development. Mr Aftab Alam Khan, International Coordinator, Stop Corporate Abuse and Trade Justice Campaign of actionaid, said it was high time UNCTAD assumed its proper position as the body set up to help developing countries to manage their trade globally.

Addressing journalists ahead of the launch of a study on Commodity-Dependence and Development, Mr Khan said the pursuit of deliberate policies by the developed world through institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund over the years had relegated to the background UNCTAD's role of working to secure better prices on the world market for developing countries.

"These bad policies of the IMF and the World Bank have meant that developing countries are now far behind in trade, facing problems in the food sector while the poverty gap has widened," he said. Mr Khan said commodity producers were being squeezed out by the strong influence of the international financial institutions, "which gospel of liberalization had spelt the doom of poor farmers". The farmers are being out-competed in their domestic market through importation of cheap products and therefore unable to get fair prices for their produce.

Mr Khan said the beneficiaries of the exploits were the profit-driven trans-national corporations and stressed the need to take action to reverse the situation by working to change trade policies at the national, regional and international levels.

The study by actionaid and South Centre held that political will was essential in order to bridge the gap between promises and actions of the developed countries in dealing with the commodities problem. There is also the need for effective poor farmers' participation to ensure that response to the current commodities crises contributes to poverty reduction.