The industrialised nations of the world were reminded on Monday (5 October) that the claim of developing nations for equality with the rest of the world must be heeded if violence is to be avoided. The speaker was quoting the director of the United Nations Special Fund, Mr. Paul G. Hopeman.

Their problems were no loner national, but international problems, said M. Mivedor, Togan Minister of Transport. He was opening a trade policy seminar of ten African nations in Lome, Togo. The aim of the conference is the formation of a common commercial policy in Africa.

Mr. Bloch, representing the United Nations Development Programme, called for an increase in inter-African trade.

He said that trade had traditionally been one of the less urgent problems of African countries. For them agricultural and industrial development had priority. Now was the time for their economies to complement each other.

The seminar on trade policy was organised under the aegis of the African Economic Commission, the General Agreement on Tarriffs and Trade and the United Nations Development Programme.

The seminar was attended by businessmen from Dahomey, the Ivory Coast, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi, Gabon, Upper Volta, Malagasy Republic, Senegal, Chad and Togo. The seminar ends on 6 November.