Annan calls for lower trade barriers at UN conference

[Freddie Stubbs]

SAO PAULO : UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that rich countries must not use looming world trade talks to put up new barriers to commerce as he opened the a key trade and development conference.

"Policies ought not to give with one hand and take away with the other. Rules designed to liberate ought not to create new barriers," Annan said in an opening speech to the 11th UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

"Countries which press others to liberalize trade should be willing to do the same themselves," he added.

"If they don't, we politely call it lack of coherence; but we could just as accurately call it discrimination. And that is what people are looking to this conference to take a strong stand against."

more: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/90000/1/.html