Economic analysts and trade experts meeting in Accra have predicted grave consequences for developing countries if the developed world succeeded in pushing their agenda of drastic reduction in industrial tariffs.
They said such a proposal, which comes under the Non-Agricultural Market Access ((NAMA), would rank high on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation's Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong in December this year.
Speaking at a four-day conference for civil society groups from Africa, Mr Tetteh Hormeku of the Third World Network-Africa said even though there were issues of non-tariff barriers in the NAMA, lowering industrial tariffs had always been the key goal of the WTO.
He said so far several formulae for the drastic cut had been proposed and if adopted at the Hong Kong meeting average industrial tariffs in developing countries would become the lowest as it was during the period of Unequal Treaties of the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Those periods were days when weaker countries were deprived of tariffs autonomy and were forced to impose a flat tariffs rate of not more than three per cent to five per cent.
The worrying thing, Mr Hormeku noted was that many developing countries did not seem to realise how devastating the industrial tariffs cuts could be, especially if the most radical US version of the calculation were adopted.
He said the presumption underlying the WTO's free trade was always better was not always true since that would amount to opening up a country's trade system to vulnerability.
Mr Hormeku explained that lower tariffs for a commodity might make its import cheaper, benefiting the consumers of the particular commodity, but the overall result depended on what happened to the rest of the economy.
Alhaji Issa Aremu, from Nigeria, speaking on the impact of trade liberalisation said historically, and even today, the developed nations relied on tariff protection, subsidies and other measures to promote their industries.
"Their adult industries are being protected but yet they ask us not to protect our infant industries," he said.