The EU must stop pushing poor countries to sign up for reciprocal trade economic partnership agreements (EPAs) and wait for stalled global trade talks to conclude, activists said yesterday.

Brussels hopes to negotiate EPAs with six regions in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to open up their markets to tariff-free imports from the EU by January 2008. But critics say poor countries risk sinking further into poverty if the EU pushes ahead with the deals, saying they could harm local industry and farming by unfair competition.

"We should develop a partnership that allows both parties to benefit from the partnership. As it stands right now, EPAs are not going to do that for Africa," said Valerie Traore, a programme manager at African non-governmental organisation, Acord, which looks at trade issues.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Social Forum meeting in Kenya, she said: "It should protect our agriculture, not destroy agriculture that is already in a crisis." Ms Traore said the EPAs were meant to make trade relations between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries compatible with the outcome of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations.

The Doha round of WTO talks, launched in 2001, were intended to increase fair trade, but collapsed in July. "If they are supposed to be compatible with WTO rules, doesn't it make sense to wait until the WTO negotiations have come to a close?" Ms Traore said. Experts believe the talks could be revived at this week's World Economic Forum in Switzerland.