Poor countries urged to strengthen regional blocs for better WTO deal

The resolutions made in the just ended conference on `Mobilising Aid For Trade - Focus on Africa`` in Tanzania will not help developing countries unless strong regional economic groupings are formed to give them economic power.

The remarks were made by the academicians at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) when asked to comment on the outcome of the meeting.

During the meeting agricultural exporters in poor nations pressed for funds and technical assistance to comply with food safety requirements in order to boost their share of world trade, according to World Trade Organization (WTO) representatives.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said in the meeting that giving higher priority to the safety standards of exports could prepare the poorest nations to benefit more from the Doha development round.

The high-level conference was hosted by the WTO, the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Development Bank.

The Doha round of global trade talks started in 2001 under the auspices of the WTO and is meant to liberalize world trade in a way that will boost development in poor countries.

A Faculty of Commerce and Management Senior Lecturer at the university Dr George Lindi said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian on Sunday that only through massive investment aid by WTO developed partners would development be achieved in such developing member countries.

``Developed countries have become what they are only through strong regional blocks such as EU, Asian Pacific and the United States of America.

These blocks have always tended to discourage imports from the so called WTO partners from developing partners,`` he elaborated.

The best way for developed WTO members to be equal partners with the developing to WTO members was for them to introduce a policy which would help developing countries to export their goods to developed countries with less stringent trade regulations.

The prominent lecturer in International Trade said two measures by the WTO would bail out developing countries from trade imbalances exerted by the prominent WTO members.

He named them as strong joint ventures between the two sides most preferably with fifty- fifty ownership.

Secondly, management of such ventures should not be fully vested upon foreign investors but should be equally managed by both parties.

He said such measures have proved successful in many of the present industrially advanced countries like Japan, China, US and Germany.

Advising the remedial measures to our ailing economy the lecturer suggested a massive green revolution saying that a greater percentage of the country`s revenue originates from the agricultural sector.

He said that would mean processing the goods locally to have an added value of the export products.

On minerals which he said was another foreign exchange earner the lecturer advised that a proper policy which would check the trade should be put in place.