Delegates from 180 nations gathered Sunday for a United Nations forum on development whose agenda includes easing Third World poverty by reducing trade barriers among developing nations.
The 11th forum of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development brings together representatives of the world's richest and poorest countries for a week of meetings in Brazil's commercial capital.
Developing nations were expected to renew calls for better access to the markets of their industrial counterparts. But they also faced pressure to reduce mutual trade barriers.
Promoting so-called South-South trade was on the agenda of a pre-conference meeting held Saturday in Sao Paulo by the Group of 77 developing nations.
"Our future success in the G-77 hinges on new strategies for South-South cooperation," said Mandisi Mpahlwa, South Africa's minister of trade and industry.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the meeting that the G-77 - which is actually made up of 132 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 Saturday.
Alseny Sylla, Guinea's secretary for industrial development, said the creation of trade blocs among developing countries would help them penetrate the markets of the industrialized nations.
"The ultimate objective is to use these blocs as a strategy to confront the G-8," Sylla said.
Brazil hosted a separate closed-door meeting Saturday for the Group of 20 developing nations, which are pushing for a deal by July to relaunch the stalled Doha round of World Trade Organization trade talks.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick was scheduled to meet Sunday with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim to discuss the Doha round.
After sitting down Saturday with G-20 delegates, Amorim said there have been signs of progress in recent negotiations with developed countries.
He told reporters he didn't think Zoellick and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy "would come to Brazil if they didn't think, as we think, that there is a possibility of reaching an agreement."
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.
UNCTAD, which holds the forum every four years, last gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, just months after the WTO's attempt to launch a new round of trade negotiations in Seattle collapsed amid violent anti-globalization 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.
Associated Press writers Harold Olmos and Vivian Sequera contributed to this report.Associated Press:
