UNCTAD proposals for successful results in the Millennium Round

Lima, Nov. 26 1999. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary General Rubens Ricupero urged the countries of the Third World to build alliances to "counterbalance the market weight" the wealthiest countries will bring to bear during the international trade negotiations scheduled to start next week in Seattle.

Ricupero broached the subject during his visit today to the headquarters of the Andean Community (CAN) in Lima. There he met with institution officials to study the prospects of the so-called Millennium Round that will be defined at the III Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization to run from November 30 to December 3.

After drawing attention to the fact that the developing countries were the source of 51 percent of the 250 proposals put forward for discussion in Seattle, Ricupero stressed that an "even more proactive" attitude is needed if successful results are to be attained in the short and long terms.

He stated that In the short term, which he situated within the time frame of the Seattle Conference, the developing countries must demand "the complete elimination of barriers to the exports of the 48 poorest of the poor," where earnings average a dollar a day.

The developing countries as a group must secure "longer terms and more flexible conditions" for implementing "certain problematical results from the previous Uruguay Round," such as those having to do with intellectual property and performance requirements.

He was also of the opinion that industrialized countries must be held to their promises of technical cooperation for developing nations, by setting figures and naming the providers.

The anticipated costs of implementing the negotiations must also be specified, together with the sources of financing. Implementation of the Uruguay Round is estimated to have cost the average developing country 150 million dollars.

In the long term, developing countries must make substantial strides in areas where the Uruguay Round yielded meager results, such as the deregulation of textiles and agriculture.

Although the Uruguay Round resulted in an agreement to dismantle the Multifiber Agreement between 1995 and 2005, over one-half of that period has passed and barely 6% of the value of the total trade in that sector has been deregulated.

Ricupero strongly felt, moreover, that the subsidizing of agricultural producers by industrialized countries "should be prohibited or at least substantially reduced," in order to give developing nations more balanced conditions for competition.

By the same token, he considered it necessary to face up to the problems of "tariff escalation and peaks," for the duties levied by industrialized countries tend to be generally low, but increase heavily for certain sensitive products exported by developing nations.

By way of example, he cited knits, apparel, fruits, vegetables, flowers and processed food products, footwear, and rubber and wooden articles, which must face tariffs that reach up to 300 and 600 percent in some Asian countries. Brazilian orange juice is a case in point, for although Brazil is the world's foremost producer of this product, it cannot penetrate the United States market because the tariff charged is 436 dollars a ton.

Ricupero considers that the new round will be successful for the developing countries if "abusive anti-dumping measures are limited," "a better balance is achieved with regard to subsidies that to date benefit only the wealthiest countries," and advances are made in dealing with technical and sanitary measures to "keep them from becoming major barriers to trade."

Within the framework of Ricupero's visit to Lima, the UNCTAD and CAN Secretariats drew up a working plan on technical cooperation geared toward the training of Andean trade negotiators, investment management, and institutional strengthening.