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.