QUITO (Reuters):
UNITED NATION'S. (U.N.) Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday urged rich and poor nations to overcome a rift in free trade negotiations to help fight poverty in the developing world.
Annan, who has long lobbied to improve trade prospects for poor nations, said he hoped the breakdown of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Cancun, Mexico, in September would not prove a long-term setback to negotiations.
"If we were able to really succeed in negotiating a good trade agreement, it will help many, many countries lift themselves out of poverty and they will gain much, much more than they get from development assistance," Annan said on a visit to Ecuador on a four-country tour of South America.
The WTO talks collapsed as poor nations fought bitterly for the United States and Europe to dismantle farm subsidies, a contentious issue in talks to open global trade. The goal is 'a free system that eliminates the subsidies' that give farmers in rich nations an unfair advantage, Annan said.
Annan said trade would give poor nations more relief from the heavy burden of foreign debt than a restructuring or cash handouts. His comments came after Ecuador asked the United Nations to help it swap more of its debt for development programs.
Ecuador - one of the poorest countries in South America - is struggling to reduce poverty despite the weight of an US$11 billion foreign debt, equivalent to 42.5 per cent of its gross domestic product. Annan, who visited Chile last week, will also travel to Peru and Bolivia.
Officials from 34 countries in the Americas will meet next week in Miami, Florida, to hold talks for free trade in the region.
