ETHIOPIA MINISTER SEES AFRICA DEBT PAYMENT PROBLEM

  Africa may have to follow Brazil in
  halting foreign debt payments unless industrialised nations are
  prepared to be more flexible in trade and economic policy,
  Ethiopian trade minister Tesfay Dinka said.
      Growing protectionism and declining commodity prices had
  caused a major deterioration in the export earnings of all
  developing countries, he said in an opening speech to a meeting
  of African trade ministers in Addis Ababa.
      Unless there was an early improvement in developing
  countries' terms of trade "the only choice is to follow the
  route that Brazil appears to have taken," Tesfay said.
     The two-day meeting of delegates from 50 African states was
  called to work out a consensus ahead of the Group of 77
  ministerial meeting in Havana next month, when the developing
  countries will debate their strategy in economic negotiations
  with the West.
      Tesfay accused the West of intransigence in the negotiation
  of recent commodity agreements.
      The failure of the International Coffee Organisation to
  agree on the reintroduction of export quotas would mean "several
  African countries will not have the foreign exchange to import
  essential items," he said.
      Coffee accounts for 60 pct of Ethiopian exports and the
  recent fall in world coffee prices has sharply reduced the
  country's foreign exchange earnings.
      Adebayo Adedeji, the executive secretary of the U.N.
  Economic Commission for Africa, told the meeting that there was
  an increasing net outflow of resources from Africa.
      He blamed this on high interest rates, debt servicing and
  the repatriation of profits by foreign investors.
      Africa paid 13 billion dlrs to service its total foreign
  debt last year and by 1990 annual service payments are expected
  to rise to between 16 and 24 billion, Adedeji said.
      He accused industrialised countries of failing to provide
  more resources to implement the U.N. Program for Africa's
  economic recovery and development, despite Africa's willingness
  to raise two thirds of the capital from domestic sources.
      The U.N. Program, approved last year, calls for 128 billion
  dlrs of economic investment in Africa over five years.
      Western donors were asked to contribute 46 billion dlrs,
  with the rest being raised from local resources, but Adedeji
  said the donors had not responded as hoped.
     In view of this poor response, he said "it is possible that
  by the year 2,000 nearly all African countries, except a few,
  will be categorised as least developed countries."
      At present, 27 of Africa's 50-odd states are officially
  listed in this category.
  

