Africa stays on G8 agenda but trade impasse key

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Top world powers will this weekend review progress made over the past year in helping Africa's poorest but pressure groups say the lack of a new global trade deal is their biggest failure.

A year ago in Gleneagles, Scotland, leaders from the Group of Eight rich nations committed to specific measures on debt relief, aid, health, education and trade liberalisation - all aimed at lifting millions from poverty in Africa and beyond.

Anti-poverty lobbyists and relief agencies seeking to hold the G8 to account say some progress has been made but the still-deadlocked Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation had been the most significant disappointment.

"If the G8 fails on trade they will have undercut their broader plan to tackle the health and economic crises that threaten the stability of the African continent," Jamie Drummond, director of the DATA - the lobby group set up by rockers and anti-poverty campaigners Bono and Bob Geldof.

The leaders of the G8 - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia - will discuss with WTO chief Pascal Lamy on Monday at their summit what measures can be made to break the deadlocked, 5-year-old Doha round.

British and German officials are holding out hopes for a political impetus from the summit that would send trade negotiators back to the table to strike a deal this month.

Optimism dimmed on Saturday as the US and Russia failed to reach accord on Russia's WTO entry - a move many hoped would tee-up a wider Russian-hosted push on the Doha talks.

Meetings on Monday with leaders from powerful trading powers from the developing world - Brazil, India, China, Mexico and South Africa - are now seen as critical.

Failure to reach broad agreement this month on thorny issues of agricultural subsidies and tariffs would likely put talks on ice for years as the US President's "fast track" authority to pass trade deals without Congress runs out in 2007.

Aid and development organisation Oxfam International said the chances of a trade deal that would truly benefit the poorest African states still seemed low, but they had not given up hope of something emerging from the summit.

"Although Europe and America have not shown the necessary flexibility so far in the WTO negotiations, we would love to be proved wrong this weekend," said trade expert Louis Belanger.

The Doha round has foundered on a three-way logjam over the extent of cuts to US farm subsidies, European Union agricultural tariffs and developing country barriers to imported manufactured goods and services.

Campaigners say making trade work for Africa means eliminating trade-distorting subsidies in G8 countries on key African export crops such as cotton; boosting market access for Africa's main exports; and new "aid for trade" to help countries cope with the adverse impact of liberalisation.

"A failed round of WTO negotiations will still not excuse G8 leaders from their promise," DATA said in a statement.

G8 leaders are scheduled to discuss trade and development in Africa during lunch on Sunday and will review the Gleneagles promises to "make poverty history" on Monday. Alongside the five developing country guests and WTO chief Lamy, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will be in attendance.

- REUTERS