http://www.news24.com September 3, 2003 Kuala Lumpur - Expressing pessimism about the next round of global trade talks, South African President Thabo Mbeki suggested on Wednesday that poorer nations link up with anti-globalisation protest groups to win a better deal on international trade.
"They may act in ways that you and I would not like - breaking windows in the street and this and that - but the message they are communicating relates to us," Mbeki told a seminar in Malaysia during a visit to strengthen ties between Africa and Southeast Asia.
Citing the role US lobby groups played in winning American support for sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa, Mbeki said the developing world should try to enlist public opinion in the West to force more powerful nations to stop flouting trade rules.
Almost 150 member countries of the World Trade Organization are due to meet in Cancun, Mexico, September 10-14 for the latest negotiations on a global trade treaty.
Protests draw hundreds of thousands
WTO meetings have been the scene of anti-globalisation protests drawing hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in recent years.
In some cases, police have struggled to quell protesters wearing hoods and gas masks as they went on rampages attacking outlets of multinational corporations.
Many poorer countries and their supporters complain that the United States and Europe force developing nations in Africa and Asia to lower trade protection measures by tying aid to compliance, but often flout liberalisation agreements when it comes to opening their own economies.
'Helping keep Africa poor'
Governments in developing countries know that keeping subsidies for domestic industries helps keep Africa poor, "but the will to move to address this is weak or missing," Mbeki said.
He said a key issue for Africa in Cancun will be agriculture - but he had little faith an agreement would be reached that was beneficial.
"There are major difficulties with regard to agricultural subsidies," Mbeki said. "Indeed, the fear is that Cancun will fail on this issue."
To have more influence in global events such as WTO negotiations, the developing world needs to "speak with one voice" and to collaborate with partners in the West who support their interests, Mbeki said.
"We need to link up with our constituency in the developed world which says there must be change," Mbeki said, in relation to anti-globalisation protesters.
"Perhaps that linkage - a united developing world and a popular movement in developed countries... will get them to move," he said.
Mbeki earlier this year handed leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement of 116 mostly poorer countries to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The two leaders held talks on Tuesday and agreed cooperation between all developing nations would lead to a stronger negotiating bloc.
Mahathir, 77, who is retiring later this year after more than 22 years in power, is a strong critic of globalisation and accuses Europe and the United States of manipulating the international trade system to keep developing nations poor.National Post:
