Expressing pessimism about the next round of global trade talks, 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 south-east Asia.
Citing the role United States 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 Organisation (WTO) are due to meet in Cancun, Mexico, on September 10-14 for the latest negotiations on a global trade treaty.
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 US 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. — Sapa-AP