African Trade Ministers Conference opens in Accra.

President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday asked African Trade Ministers to advocate for a transitional period within which developing countries would be supported to nurture their economies to make them more equal and competitive for the global market.

He said the basis for such support by developed countries should be the democratisation and commitment of developing countries to good governance and their recognition of the private sector as the engine of growth.

President Kufuor was opening a two-day Preparatory Conference on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for African Trade Ministers in Accra to consider ways that would ensure that Africa becomes an integral part of the world trading system.

The theme for the Conference, which is a prelude to the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar next month, is: "Forging a Common Trade Position, making WTO Relevant for the African Business Sector."

Countries attending are, Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar, Mauritania, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Cote D'Ivoire.

President Kufuor said Africa has been left out of the benefits of the expansion in the global trade and the challenge facing the continent was how to harness the opportunities generated by WTO to enable it to participate.

He, therefore, called on the Trade Ministers, to use the Conference to identify issues that have hampered Africa's role in world trade and come out with recommendations in one clear and unambiguous voice.

"This is a great opportunity for us to articulate the difficulties we have with the WTO and other similar international organisations. Our message at the conference, therefore, needs to be united, clear and strong."

President Kufuor asked the participants to discuss the issue of tariff escalation and other non-tariff barriers that have prevented Africa from embarking on any meaningful industrialisation programme.

He called for a more co-operative approach between the WTO and the international financial institutions since they all share the same goal of encouraging growth and development within the context of an open trading system.

President Kufuor said the WTO holds so much promise for economic growth that it should be pragmatic in its approach and be flexible to adjust to current realities to serve the needs of all its members.

"If the confidence of the multi-lateral trading system is to be maintained, then it is important for the WTO to be seen as an organisation that is fair, equitable and caters for the concerns of all its member states irrespective of their level of development."

Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, stressed the need for Africa to review the global economic growth and assess its role in order not to be marginalised at the WTO meeting next month.

He said trade links and communication between African countries were more difficult than between African countries and Europe and other developed countries due to lack of logistics and other trade barriers.

Dr Apraku said to move the African continent forward, issues such as agricultural subsidies, technological transfers in the globalised world should be tackled and common grounds for development adopted.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, stressed the need for Africa to institutionalise capacity building process and establish research facilities to train people in the act of negotiating for better deals in business transactions.

Mr Stefan Frowein, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Ghana, said international trade needed a stable and predictable rules-based framework.

"Without it, the law would be that of the jungle where economic strength rather than the rule of law prevails. This is of particular importance for the weaker countries in the world."

Mr Frowein said the ACP-EU partnership has been and would continue to be instrumental in helping African countries integrate more successfully in the world economy and thereby play a more active role in international trade.

A new round of multilateral trade negotiations would be launched at the WTO meeting next month because after the September 11 disaster at the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York there was the need for a trading system that was more dedicated to development.

Mr Frowein said developed countries must do more to foster economic growth in developing countries to create a more stable and development-oriented set of international trade rules to help combat poverty, inequality and exclusion.

Mr Bernard M. Hoekman, Policy and Research Manager of the International Trade team at the World Bank, which sponsored the conference, said it was to help develop the capacities of African countries to articulate their views at next month's meeting.

He said WTO deals with trade and trade policies and making trade beneficial for developing countries, was the main objective of his outfit because most of the expectations of WTO over the years have not been achieved.

Mr Hoekman said subsidies on agricultural inputs makes it difficult for farmers in Africa to compete with their counterparts in other developed countries, where agricultural inputs are subsidised.