Copyright 2000 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 19-Feb-2* ***
Title: DEVELOPMENT-TRADE: UNCTAD Gets More Clout, But
Short of Funds
By Ranjit Dev Raj
BANGKOK, Feb 19 (IPS) - The United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) emerged from its tenth
conference here Saturday with a greatly enhanced role for itself in
international finance and development, but ironically short of funds
to implement its own ambitious agenda.
UNCTAD was also able to secure through the Bangkok Declaration
agreement that the benefits of trade liberalisation and globalisation
must be more widely distributed and market access for the
products of least developed countries (LDCs) increased.
The declaration and plan of action adopted by UNCTAD's 190
member states come at a time when the credibility of multilateral
institutions like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) are under severe test amid
doubts about the benefits of wide-open markets.
''A series of financial crises, including the recent Asian crisis, has
highlighted the need to strengthen international cooperation
efforts to improve the existing international financial system, with
the view to preventing recurrence of crises, providing better
mechanisms for crisis management and making it more conducive
to trade and development,'' the plan of action said.
At a press conference soon after the adoption of the Bangkok
declaration and plan of action, UNCTAD secretary-general Rubens
Ricupero said he trusted the Geneva-based organisation's
reputation to draw funds.
The quality of UNCTAD's work has been such as to attract to it
the support of the developing world, Ricupero said, but he also
expressed hope that it could more funds from the regular budget of
the United Nations.
Ricupero said UNCTAD, which held its 10th session here Feb 12-
19, had been penalised with reductions to its budget of a kind no
other UN body had been subjected to four years ago.
Clearly, it is now hoping that its added mandate and clout
would bring with it the ability to harness more funds to do its work
as well.
Thailand's deputy prime minister and conference president,
Supachai Panitchpakdi, said requests would now be made to
middle-income countries for additional funding.
More than 300 projects are currently being implemented in more
than 100 countries for an annual delivery of some 24 million U.S.
dollars, but the new plan of action could more than double this
figure, an UNCTAD official said.
Asked if countries like the United States would now act to
undermine UNCTAD's new role by limiting funds to it, Ricupero said
he had faith that all countries would cooperate with the Bangkok
verdict.
The US has not been one of UNCTAD's avid supporters. In fact,
it had at one time called for the abolition of the UN organisation
dubbed the closest in spirit to the developing countries, for whom it
had secured significant trade terms in earlier decades.
Now UNCTAD has been boosted by a mandate by members to help
look into the shape of a new economic system, after seeing the
costs of overly hasty liberalisation of markets on the developing
world, not least the Asian crisis and trade marginalisation of Africa.
Under the plan of action, UNCTAD would contribute to the
strengthening and reform of international financial institutions
''including the enhancing of early warning and response capabilities
for dealing with the emergence and spread of financial crises''.
According to Supachai, such a surveillance system could be in
the form of regional ''sister'' banks on the model of the Manila-based
Asian Development Bank (AsDB), with rules and regulations of
similar or higher standards.
The AsDB has put up a regional surveillance mechanism in the
wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The week-long conference has been able to secure significant
headway in starting a process which Ricupero was hopeful would
culminate in a zero-duty, quota-free trade regime for poor countries,
which UNCTAD has long been advocating.
Under its plan of action, UNCTAD would work toward ''maximising
market access benefits for the least developed countries for
example by granting duty free and quota-free treatment for
essentially all products originating in the LDCs''.
This sentence had been subject of tough negotiations between
LDCs and industrialised countries wary of agreeing to anything in
the UNCTAD conference's documents that might limit their
negotiating positions at actual trade negotiations in the future.
LDCs had wanted the UNCTAD document to call for duty and quota-
free access to ''all'' exports instead of just ''essentially all''
products, phraseology that would allow importing nations to keep
out crucial exports like textiles and agricultural products.
But Ricupero said UNCTAD saw beyond a zero-duty, quota-free
regime and would like, for instance, to have removed the ''rules-of-
origin'' obstacle which was detrimental to countries like Cambodia.
According to Supachai, the greatest achievement of UNCTAD X was
that it helped in confidence-building in the wake of the failure of
WTO meeting in Seattle in November.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) generally welcomed the
outcome of UNCTAD X and said the UN body has been greatly
enhanced in prestige and now found recognition for its valued
annual, trade and development reports (TDRs).
''UNCTAD has received a fresh mandate but should now act
boldly in implementing it,' said Martin Khor of the Malaysia-based
Third World Network (TWN).
Jayanti Durai of the UK-based Consumers International said
while the need to reform the multilateral trading system was
acknowledged, more concrete proposals were needed or the poor
would end up having received only lip service at Bangkok.
Khor said the developing countries should now collect funds to
ensure that UNCTAD continued to do its work. ''It would be good
investment,'' he said.
(END/IPS/ap-wd-if-dv/rdr/js/00)
Origin: Rome/DEVELOPMENT-TRADE/
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