I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Joyce Pickard (Letters, September 2).

The balance of power at the forthcoming World Trade Organisation negotiations will be unfair, and the issues raised questionable. That a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, poor countries cannot manage their own economies and big business puts its interests before the environment is a cause for concern.

MPs need to hear more from their citizens - constituents and taxpayers - in order to make a change.

I Wilmott,

Springwood,

Haxby, York.

Updated: 10:11 Thursday, September 04, 2003