The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the biggest economic grouping in Africa, has urged developed countries to reduce their agricultural subsidies.

A small reduction in developed countries' 280 billion US dollar support to agricultural production would have a big impact on the lives of millions of poor African people, COMESA acting secretary general Nagla El-Hussainy said Thursday at the opening of the 20th intergovernmental committee meeting.

Her remarks came less than two week before trade ministers from around the world convene in Hong Kong for the sixth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, in a bid to save the Doha Development Round of Trade talks.

The COMESA official regretted that the Doha round of talks has not delivered on its promise, despite all the rhetoric of the developed world.

"African countries remain unable to sell most of our products on the world market, so their share of world trade remains tiny, with a severe impact on the lives of millions of poor people," she said.

COMESA is a major regional integration body in Africa, with its 20 member countries boasting a combined population of 385 million.

The three-day meeting in Lusaka will, among other things, discuss the establishment of the COMESA customs union by December 2008.

The customs union will allow the region to negotiate with one voice with the rest of the world and to present an enormous market that no trade, investor or government policy maker can ignore, said El-Hussainy.

Source: Xinhua