A United Nations (UN) report has indicated that an estimated $700billion is lost annually by indigent nations due to unfair trade rules.

Barr. Ike Okorie, General Secretary at the millennium campaign luncheon organised by the Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN) to proffer ways to achieving the eight goal agenda of the UN Millennium Debvelopment Agenda (MGD) in Lagos disclosed that the UN has reported that an estimated $700billion is lost annually by poor nations as a result of unfair trade practices by developed countries, a situation that is less than 0.01 per cent which could have saved the sight of 30 million people in the poor nations.

In effect, Okorie said that international trade per minute is worth $10million which indicates that 70 per cent of this is controlled by multinational corporations.

He added that poor nations totaling 49, which makes up 10 per cent of the world's population accounts for only 0.4 per cent of the world's trade, their share, he said, have reduced to halve since 1980.

Okorie stressed that world trade robs poor countries of 1.3 billion Euros, an amount which is 14 times what they get as aid. He pointed out that the prices of many poor countries key export are at a 150 year low.

He explained that rich countries gain $141.8 billion yearly in trade, and Africa is $2.5 billion per year worse off. He also pointed out that rich countries spend $100 billion a year to protect their markets with tariff, quotas and subsidies, these he said are twice as much as what they provide in aid to developing countries.

The General Secretary noted that current trade rules have forced Mexican farmers who live on a dollar per day to compete with American farmers receiving subsidies of more than 20, 000 annually.

Mr. Chidi Nwabueze, Managing Consultant, Novelty Consulting Limited who analysed the report said that an average cow in the European Union (EU) receives more than $2 a day in subsidies, whilst more than 3billion people in developing countries struggle to survive on less than one dollar a day.

Nwabueze noted that EU gives $86.8 billion a year as subsidies to its farmers, even though $5billion could have helped give everyone in the world access to safe water and sanitation.

On aid, he explained that in 1970, 22 of the world's richest countries pledged to spend 0.7% of their national income on aid, but 34 years later only 5 countries kept the promise. The UK, he said, in 2002\3 spent just 0.3% of its national income on aid, he said that if the UK had met the 0.7 % target, by 2008 an extra 1.5 million people could have beaten poverty that year.