REPRESENTATIVES of rich and poor countries are meeting at the World Trade Organisation talks in Quatar well away from the demonstrations that have accompanied previous meetings, so they hope!

Once again the rich countries will almost certainly force through liberalisation and globalisation policies that will cause increasing poverty and inequality around the world whilst giving even greater power (and profits) to multinational companies.

Over the past 20 years the share of global trade of the poorest countries has more than halved. Africa is estimated to be losing $2.6 billion a year. Freer trade is pushing down prices for third world exports like tea and coffee and cocoa whilst the cost of things they import, like wheat and corn, is rising.

When I visited a sugar growing area of western Kenya in 1998 much of the crop was going to waste because sugar prices were so depressed that sugar was even being imported into Kenya for a price less than it could be produced locally.

When a Kenyan friend visited the area recently he found that the sugar factory had closed down and even the once upper class land owners are now living like the poor majority.

The 49 poorest countries have 10 per cent of the world's population and yet have only 0.4 per cent of it's trade. 70 per cent of world trade is controlled by multinational companies.

If we really want to help the poor, then we must provide them with the technology to enable them to produce their own pharmaceuticals, machinery, tools and equipment that is appropriate for their development and does not require the unsustainable use of non-renewable resources.

But first let the rich countries help the poor by just getting off their backs.

MICHAEL THOMAS

Churchward Avenue

Swindon