On the eve of 180-nation talks aimed at easing misery through trade liberalization, developing countries met Saturday to discuss reducing barriers among themselves to boost their share of global commerce.
Poor countries are seeking better market access to the economies of their richer counterparts, but nations like Brazil and India also face huge obstacles that stymie trade with each other.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which opens Sunday, aims to use trade to foster development and eradicate poverty. It will be the grouping's 11th forum in its 40 year history.
The weeklong meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil's hub of industry and finance, brings together leaders of Latin American countries, plus trade ministers and development officials from most other countries.
The so-called Group of 77 developing nations, which actually has 132 member nations, faced calls Saturday at its meeting in advance of the forum that they must find ways to slash tariffs and other trade impediments.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed the delegates, saying their countries had made "significant progress in raising life expectancy and lowering child mortality, and in some cases achieving spectacular economic growth."
"Our challenge today is to consolidate those gains, while at the same time addressing the needs of those countries that have yet to advance or have even regressed," Annan said.
Also Saturday, Brazil was hosting a separate closed door meeting for developing nations who are pushing to reach a deal by July to relaunch the stalled Doha round of WTO trade talks aimed at slashing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy were expected to meet Sunday with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim to discuss the Doha round.
Amorim told reporters Saturday he didn't think Lamy and Zoellick "would come to Brazil if they didn't think, as we think, that there is a possibility of reaching an agreement."
Alseny Sylla, industrial development secretary for Guinea's Commerce Ministry, said earlier that the reduction of trade barriers among developing countries would help them penetrate the markets of the powerful Group of Eight top industrialized nations.
"We need to create a climate for the reduction of trade barriers within the G77," he said. "The ultimate objective is to use these blocs as a strategy to confront the G8."
The United States has signaled readiness to scrap its own much smaller export subsidies and trade-distorting export credits. But both Washington and Brussels have stressed that the concessions are conditional on poorer countries agreeing to open their own markets.
While no breakthroughs were expected on the talks among developing countries to decrease their mutual barriers, UNCTAD's organizers said talks could move these issues forward.
Trade between India and Brazil, for example, could increase 16 times its current level of $1.3 billion with "better mutual understanding and a reduction of tariffs" between the two countries, UNCTAD secretary general Rubens Ricupero said.
No one expects developing countries to suddenly reduce all barriers to imports because that could increase poverty in the world's poorest countries. While India and Brazil are seeking to liberalize trade, humanitarian groups warned it would be difficult for Indian farmers to compete with Brazil's robust agricultural sector, where farmers use much more advanced technology.
"Millions of Indian farmers would be wiped out," Oxfam International spokeswoman Celine Charveriat said.
Security in Brazil's largest city was tight, with more than 2,000 police deployed near the conference site. Soldiers carrying semiautomatic weapons were posted at key intersections and on highway overpasses while military helicopters buzzed overhead.
UNCTAD, which holds the event every four years, last gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2000 just months after the World Trade Organization's attempt to launch a new round of trade negotiations in Seattle collapsed amid violent anti-globalization street protests.
Though UNCTAD does not have the power of the WTO to negotiate and enforce treaties, the two groups cover many of the same issues. Participants hope the meeting will help shift the global agenda from fighting terrorism to moving international trade talks forward and combatting Third World poverty.
Global trade relations were set back by the collapse last September of the 147-member WTO's last formal ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.
But they got a boost last month after the European Union agreed in principle to scrap export subsidies on farm produce - blamed for hurting producers in poor countries - and dropped controversial demands for new global rules on investment, competition and government procurement.Associated Press:
