Mylena Fiori
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Curitiba - Yesterday (27), president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made an appeal to the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Supachai Panatchpakdi. According to information furnished by the presidential press office, Lula asked the UNCTAD to pay more attention to developing countries and poor countries on matters related to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Lula and Panatchpakdi met for about a half hour in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba. The Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, also took part in the meeting.

According to the presidential press office, Panatchpakdi mentioned two specific programs that the UNCTAD is already carrying out in this area: advisory assistance to poor and developing countries for the certification of products to place on the international market and advisory assistance on legal matters related to the WTO.

Poor and developing countries are fighting in the WTO for fairer international trade rules. The current round of negotiations, which should be concluded by the end of 2006, was initiated in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, with the aim of constituting a development round. The negotiations revolve around the opening of important agricultural markets and the elimination of production subsidies granted to by rich countries.

Translation: David Silberstein