Annan calls on G8 summit to ease up trade & ensure energy security
25 May '06
3 min read
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is calling on the leaders of the “Group of Eight” industrialized countries to adopt at their upcoming summit bold trade liberalization measures, including duty- and quota-free access for the least developed countries, while also tackling the energy crisis in a way that respects the environment.
“The lack of significant progress on trade is conspicuous, even perilous,” he said in a letter to the leaders of Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, who will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia in July.
“Developing countries need genuine market access opportunities for their goods and services, and the least developed countries should enjoy duty-free and quota-free access for theirs,” he added, according to a text of the letter released today.
“It is also time for all trade-distorting subsidies for agriculture to be eliminated, and to do so rapidly for sensitive products such as cotton,” he wrote noting that many countries will need assistance in order to benefit from current and newly created opportunities, such as the so-called Aid for Trade programme.
“These are just some of the many sensible steps which, while fostering prosperity and opportunity for people everywhere, would allow poor and marginalized people, especially in the least developed countries, to lift themselves out of poverty,” Mr. Annan said.
“Yet I fear that the difficulties the negotiations have encountered have led some participants to contemplate settling for something less than a true development round. That must not be allowed to happen,” he added, referring to the Doha Round, which is meant to restructure world trade policy in favour of development in poorer countries.
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