DAWN recently endorsed a letter to UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) member states regarding UNCTAD’s mandate. The letter is available online in English, Spanish and French.
Some background to the reason for this letter can be found in the articles linked below, by Deborah James, who facilitates the Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) global network of NGOs and social movements working for a sustainable, socially just, and democratic multilateral trading system. She is the Director of International Programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.
Here are some excerpts from “Attempted Hijacking: Trade for Development!“:
“What if there were a United Nations agency that could assist developing countries in using trade for their own development purposes, while helping them advocate for a more fair and sustainable trading system? That could advocate for more fair and just international tax and debt systems? That had specialist divisions working to support Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the developmental challenges of Africa, among other regions? That could use integrated approach to the evolution and management of globalization, regarding the interdependence of trade, finance, investment and technology as they affect the growth and development prospects of developing countries, rather than assuming that trade occurs in a global policy vacuum?
Such an agency exists: the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Every four years, it holds a conference to debate these issues and to set the mandate of the work of the agency for the next quadrennial. Unfortunately, every four years, some rich countries push to turn it into an agency for implementing corporate trade agreements negotiated elsewhere, and to keep the agency on the sidelines of global debates and rule-setting (dominated by developed countries) on tax, debt, fiscal and macroeconomic policies, technology, and other key issues.”
After the latest conference the follow-up article was “Over Intransigence of Rich Countries, Developing Countries Win Mandate on Trade for Development“:
“Throughout the week, developed countries blocked a call for a resolution to the development mandate in multilateral trade negotiations. It is despicable that in a conference focused on trade and development, rich countries successfully prevented UNCTAD from calling for changes to the World Trade Organization (WTO), to allow more flexibility for development in poor countries. They even successfully blocked a call for a resolution to trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture that damage developing countries every day. Instead of calling for global trade rules to be centered in development and for UNCTAD to play a larger role, they affirmed the primacy of the WTO. The hypocrisy of the United States, the European Union, and other developed economies in opposing trade for development in the heart of the UNCTAD mandate has been breathtaking.”
“Civil society organizations, including trade unions and NGOs working on tax, debt, trade, investment, and other related areas, were incredibly unified in advocating for a strong mandate for UNCTAD this week on these issues. We are disappointed that, overall, UNCTAD 14 did not rise to the level of ambition required to face challenges in the current scenario of global economic, ecological and humanitarian crises. Yet the outcome document recognized several of those challenges, and importantly, affirmed previous mandates”
“The hypocrisy of the United States, the European Union, and other developed economies in opposing trade for development in the heart of the UNCTAD mandate has been breathtaking.”
“After this conference, no country from the EU, the US or other developed country can claim to be in favor of developing countries’ escaping the debt treadmill.”
Though the result wasn’t all bad, the actions of developed countries and relentless efforts to undermine the mandates of UNCTAD at the conference reinforce the need for developing countries to continue to work together.