UN, Dec 09: Trade protectionism in rich countries, especially policies that target agriculture and textiles from the south, is the biggest threat to the people of poorer countries, a new UN reports says. The annual world economic and social survey released yesterday recommends greater openness between developing countries, with south-south trade estimated to account for about 40 per cent of all trade in developing countries. But it warns that "openness and liberalization are not a panacea for poverty reduction," stressing that economic policy-making has to be tailored to the individual circumstances of countries. The survey makes a link between economic policies geared to promoting growth and a reduction in poverty, although it adds that a mix of economic policies is best in fighting poverty.

At the launch of the survey, UN under-Secretary-General for economic and social affairs Josi Antonio Ocampo said first-rate economic policies are needed if the world is to achieve the millennium development goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

"But the current era of low economic growth and difficulties in maintaining an open trade regime poses a threat to universally agreed goals on reducing world poverty," he said.

According to the survey, land redistribution and the liberalization of agricultural markets can also reduce poverty in rural areas, home to three out of every four people defined as living in absolute poverty. Bureau Report