THISDAYonline

Trade and investment gap between the developed and developing countries has a wide margin. To many analysts, the developing nations exist on the fringes of world economy.

To reduce and possibly close the gap, the Institute of Public Policy Analysis (IPPA) came to existence in 2001 to formulate well meaning Nigerians who believed that strategic ideas and practical policies to take Nigeria to greater heights. IPPA is determinated to correct that the imbalance in the relationship between the developed and developing nations world economies.

For the second time in two years, IPPA recently organised "Trade and Investment Workshop" for journalists in Lagos. One, the Institute recognises the significance of trade in turning around the economy and alleviating poverty. Two, journalists are seen as the mouthpiece of the society. Therefore, the workshop was aimed at propagating the unknown, or forgotten, or missing economic opportunities for the developing nations.

While last year's training programme focused on the basic importance of World Trade Organisation (WTO), the recent workshop addressed specific concerns of developing countries that constitute the majority in WTO. In all, five papers were presented by various speakers from different backgrounds.

The opening salvo was done by the Group Business Editor of THISDAY Newspapers, Mr. Samuel Famakinwa, with his paper titled: "Role of the Media in Promoting Increased Trade and Investment." He harp on the need for the Nigerian journalists to focus on critical issues of trade and investment so as to create an enabling environment to attract foreign investors. He said business issues should not be trivialised and the media as communication channels should provide needed business information to instigate the much-touted economic reform and change.

Famakinwa argued that the societal dynamics can be best appreciated by journalists and packaged interestingly them, but lamented however that most journalists in Nigeria do little or nothing to create the needed public awareness on trade and investment. According to him, media as the articulator of issues affecting people should publish synergy of information requires for optimal equilibrium development.

On his part, the coordinator of the Institute, Mr. Thompson Ayodele, dissected the "Agriculture Subsidy and Market Access," saying Africa needs access to developed markets and that the concept of globalisation and free trade would not be meaningful until every memeber of WTO adheres to the rules and regulations agreed upon.

He explained that Africans thought of development in early stages by relying on foreign aid until almost all African countries were mired in huge foreign debt. The attendant failure of the foreign aid to solve these economic problems cum the economic miracle of some Asian countries, he observed, led African leaders to be thinking of and seeking increased foreign trade. African leaders, acoording to him, belived that increased trade is the only way to join the league of rich countries and come out of the debt burden.

Ayodele noted that the Doha Round 2001 was the major initiative by WTO to clear certain economic impediments between the developed and developing nations. Specifically, he said, during Doha Round WTO's ministers agreed to substantial improvement in market access with the aim of phasing out all "forms of export subsidies and substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic support." However, he added, since the meeting, trade-distorting policies continue unabated, saying reforming and phasing out of the current practices in global farm trade holds the key for bettering the livelihood of the impoverished Africans.

Ayodele contended that Africa has a comparative advantage in agriculture because the dominant export in Africa is agriculture and incomes from it are used by Africans to provide education, maintain homes and meet other human needs. He stressed that more than 60 per cent African population earns its means of livelihood in agriculture and retaining the subsidies and export guarantee to farmers in Europe, US and Japan rob farmers in Africa of decent livelihoods as well as burden consumers in industrial countries with higher taxes and food prices.

Ayodele's concern is the benefit acruable from the phasing out, observing that "phasing out subsidy and protection in high-income countries could attrct new investment and lead to increases in annual income in developing countries up to $150 billion and $400 billion. However, the hypocrisy of European Union (EU), United States and Japan is manifest. African countries are told the benefits of lowering tariffs. But they are practing the opposite of what they preach." He added that the btotal support to farmers in the developed nations is five times annual aid flow to the developing countries, stressing that freeing agricultural trade is the greatest bcontribution the Doha Round can make to reduce poverty and foster development. He concluded that African countries want to trade and be seen as equal partners in the global trading system to be able to reduce poverty in the continent.

The Chief Commercial Officer of Federal Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Christopher Akpa's paper on "Trends in Current Trade Negotiations and Implications of Singapore Issues" examines the implications of the Singapore issues on the economies of developing countries including Nigeria.

He identified the three broad categories of WTO negotiations as tariffs, non-tariff measures and renegotiations. He said tariff negotiation is for the purpose of reducing high tariffs and other adverse effects on trade, non-tariffs deal with constructing a legal agreement that establishes rules for the conduct of trade policy among nations etc.

The ministry's chief commercial officer described the Singapore issues as "new issues" that involve a number of new areas that were added to the work programme of WTO during the first Ministerial Conference held in Singapore in 1996. These issues, according to him, include trade and investment, trade and competition policy, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation.

His words: "Nigeria and other developing countries are insisting that these issues should be unbonded, instead of being presented as a single issue. In this wise, Nigeria and other developing countries could be favourably disposed towards having an agreement on trade facilitations, but not on trade and investment, trade and competition policy and government procurement. They felt negotiations in these areas could further expose them to uncompetitiveness and shocks."

Thus, Akpa pointed out that Africa's share of world trade is smaller than that of any other major region in the world, saying this does not mean that the interests of African countries including Nigeria in WTO are less than other countries. He argued that the basic benefit of WTO membership is the opportunity it gives all members regardless of size of their ecnomy to take advantage of their comparative advantage to trade into the world economy. Therefore he admitted that negotiations are bound to bring benefits to Nigeria and other developing countries.

In "Harnessing AGOA Opportunities," Janet Deutsche x-rayed the economic opportunities the Act provided for Africans, especially Nigerians, saying Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has two-way approach of promoting US trade and investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and for the region to ensure its economic development and reform.

Deutsche, who is also the Economic Officer of US Consulate General in Lagos, noted that AGOA guarantees duty-free and quota-free export to US for more than 6,400 items. She added that while US government determines AGOA eligibilty through criteria, countries that hope to enjoy AGOA must show a continual progress toward market-based economy, protection of human and labour rights, rule of law, economic policies to reduce poverty etc.

She however cautioned that access to AGOA does not automatically mean success. She said "the fundamental role of government in increasing the competitiveness of an economy is to 'create conditions where investment is appealing to local and international and trade can flourish.'" Besides, she described the private sector as the most efficient means to employ these conditions and advantage to create jobs and prosperity.

US economic officer mentioned necessary conditions for Nigeria to compete in a global trade environment. These include analysis of competitive advantage, economic and trade policy that facilitates growth, efficient transportation services, adequate physical infrastructure, vocational and management education and training among others. She challeged the Nigerian companies to compete in a the global trade environment by producing at high capacity and low cost, producing at competitive prices, quality standards etc.

The last paper, "Patents and Access to Essential Medicines" by Mr. James Shikwati of Inter-Region Economic Network, Nairobi, Kenya, explores the relationship between patents and access to essential medicines, arguing that overall patent incidence is low but urged greater pragmatism and flexibility so that policy can concentrate on causes of epidemic mortality.

To him, economic development is essential to increasing access to essentialo medicines, contending that investments in healthcare must be better priotised. He added that because of the poverty line in the poor countries, the average healthcare spend is $2 per person per year, explaining that delivering essential medicines reliably could save up to 10 million lives per year that is about 18 per cent of the world's deaths.

Shikwati observed that few essential medicines are patented, saying "out of 319 on the list, fewer than 2 per cent are on patent in the world's poorest countries - where two third of world's population resides.