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AFRICA: Rich rob poor of US $100 billion a year - Oxfam

JOHANNESBURG, 11 April (IRIN) - "For every dollar we give in aid, two are
stolen through unfair trade," says David Gallagher of Oxfam.

Gallagher was speaking in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday at the
launch of Make Trade Fair, a global campaign aimed at changing the rules of
trade. He said the flouting of international trade rules by rich countries
cost the poor world more than US $100 billion a year.

The campaign in Africa was launched in Johannesburg and Dakar
simultaneously, as the 144 member states of the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) starts to work on a new agenda for trade negotiations that will
determine how world trade will be regulated in the future.

In a report titled "Rigged Rules and Double Standards", Oxfam revealed some
insteresting statistics on Thursday.

"More than 128 million people could be lifted out of poverty if Africa,
Latin America, East Asia and South Asia each increased their share of
exports by just one percent," it said. A one percent increase in exports for
Africa was worth a staggering five times the amount it received in aid and
debt relief combined, it added.

A number of experts attending the launch of the campaign agreed that unfair
trade, if left unchecked, would further deepen the divide between the rich
north and developing countries.

Unfair trade practices, many analysts said, impacted on national and
international labour practices, agriculture and access to medicines. Africa,
the poorest continent, according to one analyst, bore the brunt of the
continued "rigging of trade rules".

"There has been an unprecedented loss of jobs in the last decade.
Unemployment has risen and conditions for workers has worsened. The labour
movement, along with other organisations, must come together to force access
to resources. Unfortunately, this does not come on a platter," President of
the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Willie Madisha, said.

Madisha added that up until now developing countries have been divided in
their challenge to international trade organisations and called for unity
among developing nations. "The poor must speak with one voice if there is to
be any progress made in gaining access to resources," he said.

According to the Oxfam report, in the last decade the world's poorest five
percent lost almost a quarter of their real income, while the richest five
percent gained 12 percent. Trade, though not exclusively, has been an
important factor in this widening gap. For every US $100 generated by world
exports, US $97 goes to the high and middle income countries, and only US $3
to low income countries.

Agriculture, the backbone of many developing countries' economies, was
highlighted as one of the most traded commodities subjected to double
standards.

"The fundamental rules have changed in this new trade environment and
developing country producers are at a distinct disadvantage. Farmer
subsidies, marketing support and import tariffs have been dismantled to meet
WTO agreements and the conditionalities imposed with International Monetary
Fund loans," Charlie Mather, senior lecturer at the Wits School of
Geography, said.

Mather added that in the face of what may appear as an insurmountable
challenge, developing countries needed to develop capacity in dealing with
the double standards. He said the longer term strategy involved reforming
the WTO so that it represented different trading interests.

Of the 36,1 million people living with HIV/AIDS, an overwhelming 95 percent
live in developing countries. Access to cheap drugs has become a contentious
issue between drug manufacturers and the developing world.

Jonathan Berger, an HIV/AIDS researcher at the University of Witwatersrand,
highlighted the South African government's HIV/AIDS policy. Berger said that
while WTO agreement on intellectual property rights had strengthened the
internal protection of national patents, it did not prevent the government
from taking legal steps to ensure a meaningful reduction in drug prices.

"Either uninformed or misinformed, the South African government has not
taken the opportunity presented to them by the WTO agreement on intellectual
property rights. The agreement actually permits developing countries to
challenge drug companies to reduce their prices," Berger said.

Oxfam is calling for a radical reform of the international trading system so
that trade can become the engine for poverty reduction. For the full report:
http://www.maketradefair.com

[ENDS]

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