NGOs call for trade fairness in developing countries

Delegates follow proceedings during the 14th United Nations Conference on Trade and Development conference at KICC in Nairobi on July 18, 2016. Africa is estimated to lose Sh5 trillion annually through illicit financial flows. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The more than 400 organisations, which held three-days of deliberations preceding Sunday’s opening ceremony, want United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) mandate on curbing tax evasion and avoidance, as well as that of addressing international trade imbalances enhanced to promote fairness for developing countries.

Nairobi. The civil society has issued a raft of demands touching on economic challenges facing developing countries.

The more than 400 organisations, which held three-days of deliberations preceding Sunday’s opening ceremony, want United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) mandate on curbing tax evasion and avoidance, as well as that of addressing international trade imbalances enhanced to promote fairness for developing countries.

A strongly worded statement released by the organisations now sets the stage for a Friday fallout should the Nairobi meeting fail to accommodate the demands in its final outcome documents.

The organisations also decried dominance by developed nations, which they said threaten to water down Unctad’s mandate, reducing it to a rubber stamp of their individual interests.

“Paradoxically, the advanced industrial countries seek the exact opposite agenda for Unctad’s future.

“As is clear from the positions they have taken in the negotiations towards Unctad 14, these countries continue with their project to curtail Unctad’s ability to provide independent and critical policy perspectives,” read a joint statement.

“Unctad risks being undermined in its role of providing the much-needed corrective and balance to the chorus of positions that usually emanate from dominant players like the World Bank, IMF, the WTO, the OECD, and the like.”

The groups also want the international trade regime revised, including the WTO agreements, economic partnership agreements, bilateral and international investment agreements, and protecting the space for policy initiatives and South South economic cooperation against further encroachment.

The meeting is also expected to address the continuing debt burdens and the looming debt crisis in many countries, Kenya included. (NMG)