São Paulo, June 17, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The third round of negotiations within the ambit of the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) was officially inaugurated, yesterday (16), in a special session of the 11th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XI).

Ministers from countries that are signatories of the system signed what now becomes known as the São Paulo Declaration. In the declaration they pledge to promote trade among developing countries. By November, study will begin on a set of norms to facilitate commercial transactions. The final document will be ready in November, 2006.

"We are taking a step not only for our development, but for the development of the entire world," believes Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of the UNCTAD.

For the Economic Affairs Subsecretary of the Itamaraty (Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Relations), Clodoaldo Hugueney Filho, the principal objective of the third round of negotiations in the GSTP is to bring an ever-increasing number of nations into the system and to pay more and more attention to the less developed nations.

"As in the previous rounds, the idea is to open up participation to other countries. Our expectation is that the other G-77 nations will participate," Hugueney said. "The GSTP affords preferential access to the relatively less developed countries (over 40) and permits the expansion of negotiations, which are currently confined to the issue of goods in segments of the service sector."

The GSTP was created in 1988, in Belgrade, at a meeting of the UNCTAD. The G-77 countries -- a group formed by the developing countries and China -- led the initiative for the creation of the system, which went into effect the following year. Participation in the GSTP is limited to countries in the G-77, which has 132 members at the present time. Of these nations, 40 ratified the agreement, a necessary step to receive the benefits.

Brazil and Argentina are among these countries, but there is a negotiation underway to admit all the members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). One of the countries with a great potential for joining the system is China, which belongs to the G-20, a group of developing countries that are fighting for fairer rules in international agricultural trade.

The purpose of the GSTP is to increase trade among developing countries by serving as a channel for trade concessions, without the need for the intervention of higher-level bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). As a result, problems such as barriers to agricultural products - the economic base of many of these countries - and tariff walls would be minimized. Developing countries would have the option of buying and selling products among themselves.

Reporters: Liésio Pereira and Juliana Cezar Nunes
Translator: David Silberstein