Global trade regime detrimental to developing nations, Seychelles tells UN

The distorted world trade regime is an obstacle to development, the leader of the Seychelles told the General Assembly today, calling for increased justice and fairness to recognize the specific needs of small island nations.

“We should abandon ‘solutions’ which continue to enrich the rich and impoverish the poor and the vulnerable,” President James Alix Michel told the body’s annual high-level event today.

Subsidies handed out to farmers of wealthy nations reduce the competitiveness of poorer nations’ exports, he said.

“Yet developing countries are obliged to follow WTO [World Trade Organization] rules to the letter, even to the extent that they may undermine domestic economic policies formulated to protect vulnerable sections of society.”

Foreign investors have exploited the Seychelles’ natural resources and made great profit, while the Indian Ocean archipelago nation receives a “pittance,” Mr. Michel noted.

“It is like taking a bowl of food from the poor and giving them back a spoonful as a generous donation!” he exclaimed.

The Seychelles receives only 7 per cent of the revenue from tuna caught and shipped in its waters by foreign fishing vessels annually. “This, to my mind, is unacceptable,” the President said. “I ask you, is it unreasonable to fight for a better share of the proceeds?”

Further impeding development for his country, he pointed out, is the “middle-income” trap in which donors withhold grants and soft loans to the Seychelles, which ranks 50th in the Human Development Index, even after donor organizations have confirmed that all assistance given to the nation has been used to benefit the population.

“It is as if we are being penalized for our success in raising the standard of living of our people,” Mr. Michel declared.