Moroccan premier urges for fair rules of multilateral trade

Moroccan premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, on Monday urged for "fair trade rules" and for new financial and monetary regulation means.

Talking at the 24th session of the UN general assembly extraordinary session, the premier renewed that his plea made during the G 77 summit in Havana (last April) was meant to prevent the negative effects of speculative financial movements and of international economic and financial crises.

Youssoufi also deplored that five years after the Copenhagen social summit and despite the international community's commitments, the reality in the globe remains tragic for large communities, especially in developing countries, citing that 1.3 billion people are living in extreme poverty, while 550 millions suffer from malnutrition and hundreds of millions do not have access to drinking water and sanitation facilities.

Meanwhile, he went on, globalization has entailed since 1995 an improvement of living conditions and the emergence of new investment and job opportunities in other parts of the world. He further pleaded for converting south countries' debts into productive investments and raising additional funds for social programs as axes of the new cooperation for development policies.

For the prime minister, migrant workers should be entitled to protection guaranteed by international and national legislation, calling migration host countries to ratify treaties and conventions on the protection of expatriate workers and their families.