26/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - To be really fair and to contribute to development, the next round of negotiations within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will have to include agriculture, said the Vice-President of the World Bank, Ian Johnson, earlier this week. Mr. Johnson, who was speaking in Washington in the framework of an international conference on the role of agriculture in development, observed that 70% of poor people worked in agriculture, so much so that the impact of trade reforms and liberalisation on these populations and in the sector seemed to him to be "crucial" in reducing poverty. "Developing countries are particularly badly hit by the distortions in global agricultural trade", he stressed. According to him, the lack of market access makes it difficult for such countries to develop their agricultural export sectors, and the low cost caused by developed country subsidisation lowers their returns from the agricultural exports that do have market access. For the year 2000 alone, total agricultural subsidies granted by member countries of the OECD amounted to over $300 billion, he pointed out.