Irish charity Trócaire has accused the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of "overseeing a global trade system which has generated unprecedented wealth for a disproportionate few".

The agency's director Mr Justin Kilcullen said decision making in the WTO was not democratic.

"The WTO is clientelist, working to advance the vested interests of a small minority of members, particularly the US, EU, Canada and Japan," he said.

It favoured "rich industrialised countries and powerful transnational companies to the detriment of global human development, environmental protection and poverty eradication," according to Mr Kilcullen.

In a statement, released to coincide with the fifth ministerial conference of the WTO currently under way at Cancún in Mexico, he said "good governance, repeatedly cited by northern governments, including Ireland, as a precondition for sustainable development in developing countries, is sadly lacking in the WTO, and is at the heart of why the world trading system has failed to deliver for the majority of the world's countries and peoples."

Measured "in terms of transparency, predictability and inclusivity, the decision-making process for Cancún has actually deteriorated further since the infamous Seattle Ministerial (1999) and subsequent Doha Ministerial (2001)".

"Despite claims of improvement, non-inclusive meetings remain an integral part of the negotiating process," said Mr Kilcullen.

Over recent months, at meetings to which on average just 25 of the WTO's 146 members were invited, industrialised countries constituted a disproportionate number, he said.

This was contradictory to WTO tenets of "one country one vote" and consensus decision-making, he said.