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Dar opposes wholesale liberalisation of markets
2006-03-08 07:58:19
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Zanzibar
Tanzania is opposing the idea of liberalizing by 100 per cent markets of developing countries, saying that the move will affect local industries.
Marco Kassaja, a top official from the country’s permanent mission in Geneva, gave the position at the regional forum held in Zanzibar recently.
He was presenting a paper at the two-day forum titled: ’Possibilities for advancing development interests of East African Countries in the WTO Negotiations.’
According to Kassaja, Dar es Salaam viewed that full liberalization of developing countries’ markets would result to swamping of available markets by imports.
’This will have devastating effects on local industries, which cannot cope with foreign competitors,’ he said.
If that is allowed, he warned, a number of local industries and productions will close, forcing farmers and employees out of job.
The situation, he elaborated, would also erode developing countries’ gainful livelihoods and increase poverty due to loss of income.
He also explained that due to high dependence on customs duties, the liberalization would cause East African governments lose substantial amount of their revenues, something which he said ’will weaken their capacity to implement important public services and other national development programmes and projects.’
The two-day forum, which drew participants from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and host Tanzania, reviewed lessons from the sixth WTO Ministers’ Conference held in Hong Kong, China in December last year and adopted modalities for future negotiations.
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