President pleads with developed nations to end protectionism

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, on Monday made an impassioned plea to governments in the developed world to end protectionist trade policies which prevent poor countries from competing effectively in the global marketplace. He was speaking at the 53rd plenary meeting of the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, as part of a five-day official working visit aimed at promoting business and tourism opportunities for Uganda. A presidential press release quoted Museveni as saying that desperate poverty and aid dependence would continue in Africa “as long as the United States, European Union and Japan continue practising protectionism by closing their markets to products from Africa”. He mentioned punitively high tariffs as one feature of world trade that would need to be fixed if developing countries are to have any chance of lifting themselves out of poverty. President Museveni criticised efforts made so far to develop African economies through exporting cash crops and other raw materials. “There is no way an economy can develop that is solely dependent on agricultural and mineral exports in their raw form”, he said, “The real solution to Africa’s persistent poverty lies in the diversification of the economies of the developing countries of Africa”. He gave the example of coffee and noted that the total coffee business in the world stood at US $71billion, but only US $500 million went to producing countries. Last September, World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in the Mexican resort town of Cancun collapsed after the developing countries walked out. They complained that the United States, Japan and the EU were being insincere and one-sided in their efforts to “open up markets”. They said trade tariffs on finished products from the developing world were too high. They also complained that massive agricultural subsidies from the US and EU governments gave big agri-businesses in the developed world an unfair advantage over third world farmers.