Fiji has told a United Nations meeting that the World Trade Organisation's insistence on free and open trade is crippling small economies such as its own.
The Fiji Times reports that Fiji's deputy representative at the UN , Filimoni Kau, was speaking at a New York seminar on "Development, Security and Human Rights."
Mr Kau said Fiji has been badly affected through the loss of earnings from reduced commodity prices and loss of markets in the sugar and garment industries.
He said the negative impact of the WTO decision to do away with preferential sugar prices range from economic and social problems to security threats.
Mr Kau said Fiji is not against trade liberalisation but against the pace at which the process is dictated by developed economies through multi-lateral institutions and banks.
He said there is no equity and justice in the way trade liberalisation is being pursued.
Mr Kau said small economies have been promised assistance but he said he hoped these are genuine efforts and not merely public relations gimmicks.
