Fed: Oxfam says rich countries abusing trade rules to hit poor

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Fed: Oxfam says rich countries abusing trade rules to hit poor

By Shane Wright

CANBERRA, April 11 AAP - The world's richest countries are getting richer on the backof poor countries through the misuse of global trading rules, a leading aid organisationsaid today.

In a report into world trade, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad said the World Trade Organisation's(WTO) rules were being deliberately used by rich nations to protect themselves and theirmulti-national firms from competition by poor countries.

It said just a one per cent lift in the share of world trade to developing regionswould lift 128 million people out of poverty.

Oxfam director Andrew Hewett said trade offered the world's poor a chance to improvetheir conditions and bring wealth to hundreds of millions of people.

But world trading rules were tilted in favour of the rich, with the European Unionand the United States the worst offenders.

"Global trade is leaving millions in despair, creating a world more unequal than before,when it could do exactly the opposite," he said in a statement.

The Oxfam report estimates trade barriers against developing nations were worth morethan $100 billion, twice as much as those countries receive in aid every year.

Rich nations were spending $1 billion a day on agricultural subsidies that pushed downthe price of vital commodities.

It said a fair trading regime, including dramatic cuts in the tariffs imposed by theEU, US and Japan on agricultural commodities and garments from developing countries, wasneeded.

The biggest problem were the rules imposed by the WTO which protected developed nations,and the subsidies many countries use to help their farmers.

"When desperately poor smallholder farmers or women garment workers enter world markets,they face import barriers four times as high as those faced by producers in rich countries,"

the report said.

"The WTO's bias in favour of the self-interest of rich countries and big corporationsraises fundamental questions about its legitimacy."

Oxfam said agricultural export subsidies should be banned, the World Bank and InternationalMonetary Fund be stopped from forcing developing nations to open their markets regardlessof the impact on local populations, and developing nations be given full access to internationalmarkets.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the new round of world trade talks must target the agriculturalprotection used by rich countries against the poor.

AAP sw/daw/cjh/sb v

KEYWORD: TRADE OXFAM