General Assembly: African States urge rich nations to meet aid, trade pledges

Wealthy countries need to fulfil their much-vaunted commitments to spend more on aid and development to the world’s poorest nations and to liberalize international trade rules, the representatives of four African States have told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate in New York.

Speaking during this morning’s session of the debate, Burundi’s Second Vice-President Gabriel Ntisezerana called on developed countries to live up to their collective pledge to contribute the equivalent of 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for aid and development, despite the current turbulence in international markets.

“Special attention must be paid to the problem of order in international financial markets, the need to increase investments in Africa, the rational management of hydraulic and energy resources, the transfer of technology and international trade agreements, the issue of climate change and the management of toxic wastes,” he said.

“It is more urgent than ever that we harmonize the procedures and instruments to realize our common goals, namely the battle against hunger, the reduction of world poverty and the consolidation of peace,” Mr. Ntisezerana added.

Guinea’s Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane added his voice to the chorus calling for greater assistance from affluent countries to those in need, noting the massive inequalities between different States.

“I call on world leaders, especially those of rich and emerging countries, to increase their support for poor nations,” he said. “A lasting peace cannot be built on the present asymmetrical fissures of our world.”

Mr. Tidiane cited the removal of all barriers to exporting poor countries’ produce as essential to their emergence from marginalization and said a reformed and revitalized UN adapted to the changes of the world was the appropriate forum for facing the current global challenges.

João Bernardo de Miranda, External Relations Minister of Angola, said it was critical that the international trade rules be liberalized if the world is going to resolve the food crisis. The latest set of talks, known as the Doha round, has stalled amid disagreements between rich and poor countries.

“The agricultural subsidies provided by developed countries to their farmers are ruining the production of farmers in poor countries, limiting their access to international markets,” Mr. Miranda said.

He noted that the collapse of the Doha round has “eliminated the chances of concluding, in the short term, a general trade agreement that would remove such subventions and other obstacles to international commercial exchanges.”

Mr. Miranda urged the key participants in the trade liberalization talks to “show the necessary flexibility so that countries that are underprivileged as a result of the lack of a global trade agreement will not remain eternally marginalized from the global economy.”

In his address yesterday, the President of São Tomé and Príncipe said the international community must translate its promises and commitments into action, or risk many countries in sub-Saharan Africa missing out on achieving the anti-poverty targets know as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the scheduled date of 2015.

Fradique Bandeira Melo de Menezes said his own country, a small archipelago, had made strenuous efforts to eradicate poverty and ensure food security, but was struggling to meet the Goals because of the combined impact of the current global food and financial crises.