Agence France Presse
BANGKOK, Feb 12 -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Saturday launched an attack on the world's most powerful nations, saying they were responsible for the failure of last year's WTO talks and had impeded the development of poor countries.
Annan, here to open the UN's first trade talks of the millennium, put the blame for the failure of last year's World Trade Organisation summit squarely on developed nations which he said lacked the will to implement trade reforms.
He described as a "popular myth" the belief that the disastrous Seattle WTO talks supposed to launch a new round of trade negotiations, were scuttled by protests that paralysed the summit's program.
"The round was not launched because governments -- particularly those of the world's leading economic powers -- could not agree on their priorities," and remained locked in arguments between themselves, he told the opening ceremony of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
"Their governments all favour free trade in principle, but too often they lack the political strength to confront those within their own countries who have come to rely on protectionist arrangements."
The secretary-general said that developing nations had played a more "active and united role" in the Seattle talks than ever before.
But he said the developing world remained excluded from the move towards globalisation, largely because of barriers put in place by industrialised countries.
Annan called for a "Global New Deal" where the benefits of globalisation would be spread among all pro-investment countries.
"Can we not attempt on a global level what any successful industrialised country does to help its most disadvantaged or underdeveloped regions catch up," he asked.
UNCTAD, which has earned a reputation as an advocate of poor nations, is aimed at bringing developing nations into the global economic fold and calming the fierce anti-trade sentiment that erupted into violence at Seattle.
There are already signs that the world's most powerful nations and trade bodies are responding to criticism that developing nations have been dealt a raw deal in the liberalisation process.
World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Mike Moore told AFP Saturday that he was working on a package of proposals to offer poorer economies better access to lucrative markets.
"We have agreed to try and negotiate free market access for least developed countries," he said, adding that WTO ambassadors had also agreed to discuss implementation issues.
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