(Brussels, 17 May) Additional measures to open markets to products from the world’s most marginalized countries were announced today at the UN Conference on Least Developed Countries, and requirements for successfully involving these countries in a new round of trade negotiations were discussed, in a morning session that included top international trade officials.

The speakers included Pascal Lamy, Commissioner for Trade of the European Commission; World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Mike Moore; Poul Nielson, Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid of the European Commission; Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and of the LDC Conference; and Iddi Simba, Minister of Industry and Trade for Tanzania, the nation which is the trade coordinator for LDCs.

Mr. Lamy said that the European Union is prepared to suspend use of anti-dumping measures against the LDCs, as well as to give further financial support to the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance. Both measures will aid the LDCs in coping with the restrictive effects and technical and significant financial strain entailed in complying with complex trade agreements.

Mr. Lamy further announced that the European Council of Ministers have adopted measures to allow greater poor-country access to pharmaceuticals that combat infectious diseases.

The difficulties of adapting to progressively more complex trade agreements, and uneasiness about the prospect of a new round of trade negotiations, were referred to by Mr. Simba in his morning presentation and at a later press briefing. The LDCs in particular are suffering from a case of trade agreement “indigestion”, he said. They also require assistance with developing productive capacity and diversifying export commodities, so they can take advantage of increased trade liberalization and market access, and in contending with fluctuating or declining world prices for commodities.

A meeting of LDC trade representatives is being organized in Tanzania with the support of UNCTAD, in advance of the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting in November, to consider the common response to these issues, Mr. Simba said. He warned that the WTO mechanism might lose effectiveness or collapse if the needs of developing countries in general are not taken fully into account.

Mr. Moore agreed that “no new round can start or be completed without the developing country and LDC interests being addressed and resolved”, and said that the WTO is working to assist the LDCs to participate more fully in global trade agreements. He also said that there has not been as much progress as he would like to see in granting accession to the WTO to LDC nations, and urged governments belonging to the WTO to agree to streamlined arrangements for LDC entry.

Mr. Moore congratulated UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for calling, on the first day of the LDC Conference, for a new round of trade negotiations that takes development needs fully into account. He said that time to “fix the roof” of the international trade regimen is now, while the sun is still shining on the world economy, because rainy days may lie ahead.

Among the large obstacles that developing and least developed countries face in taking advantage of world markets, Mr. Ricupero reminded the Conference, is that the advanced nations are spending $1 billion a day in subsidizing agricultural exports.

LDC business leaders attending the Conference welcomed added support for the Integrated Framework. At yesterday’s roundtable of LDC entrepreneurs, business owners complained of technically onerous non-tariff trade barriers. In some cases, in order to gain market access, LDC businesses are required to perform expensive lab analyses of export products to prove compliance with health and safety standards. There are also strictly bureaucratic hurdles. A woman entrepreneur seeking to market camel dairy products was prevented from doing so because no official EU classification exists for this product.

Mr. Lamy said at the press briefing that assisting LDCs to cope with health and safety standards – known as “phyto-sanitary rules” – for export products is at the heart of the work of the Integrated Framework.

Placing the Brussels meeting in perspective, Mr. Lamy said that “if this Conference had not been held, we wouldn’t have had the pressure to get EBA enacted”. The EBA [“Everything but Arms”] agreement allows immediate or phased-in duty-free and quota-free access for all LDC products, except for armaments. Without the focus and pressure of preparations for the Conference, this agreement could not have been reached, he said.

Hopes that other large economies would follow suit during the Brussels Conference had not yet materialized, he said. But an atmosphere has been established in which countries are moving ahead in making improvements in market access for LDCs.

Released by the UN Department of Public Information

Contact: Tim Wall 32-2-280-6295