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**The Guardian newspaper has reported that supermarket chain Asda wants overseas suppliers excluded from a new code of conduct designed to ensure that the big grocers don't use their buying power to impose unfair trading terms.**

Apparently, Asda has requested the exclusion in a written response to the Competition Commission's 'remedies' statement, published after a near-two-year inquiry into the £125 billion grocery market.

However, lobby group ActionAid International said that Asda shouldn't oppose the measures, as they could help workers in other countries on low incomes.

"Faced with a true test of their ethical credentials, Asda has failed miserably," said Jenny Ricks, corporates campaigner at ActionAid. " response clearly shows why we urgently need sensible regulation that will ensure supermarkets clean up their supply chains overseas.

"Ethical trading cannot continue to be a sideline for big UK supermarkets. This unmasks the fact that, despite their ethical protestations, business as usual is continuing. We urge Asda and other supermarkets to prove they're serious about cleaning up their act by accepting the commission's remedies and stop fighting proposals that would help poor workers overseas."

According to The Guardian, Asda has made clear that it's turning the screw on suppliers in order to keep prices down in the face of rising global food costs.

Asda is the UK arm of the US-based Wal-Mart empire.