The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was established over thirty years ago, primarily to promote international trade and market access for poorer countries. Some countries, intent on streamlining UN operations, argue that recent economic successes in East Asia, together with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), have made UNCTAD obsolete. WTO was formed in 1994 at the end of the most recent Uruguay Round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The purpose of GATT agreements has been to remove trade barriers in order to increase market access and fuel global economic growth.
UNCTAD's new leader, Rubens Ricupero, a former Brazilian finance and environment minister, defends its role as a forum where international trade policy can be discussed in the context of sustainable development. Many poorer countries, particularly in Africa, are badly positioned to gain financially from increased globalization of world trade. A mere fifteen countries-the major industrialized nations and the emerging East Asian economies-account for seventy percent of all trade in goods and services, according to a 1995 WTO report (UN Development Update, No. 12,11-12/1995). Loss of export preferences and higher food import bills resulting from the Uruguay Round will adversely affect the trade balance of a number of African nations (UNCTAD Bulletin, No. 33).
UNCTAD has also played a leading role in mobilizing support for the least developed countries (LDCs) by providing the organizational framework and substantive support for two United Nations Conferences on the Least Developed Countries. The first of these conferences (Paris, 1981) adopted the Substantial New Program of Action for the l980s for the Least Developed Countries (SNPA), which defined the measures to be taken by these countries to promote their own development together with international support. The Second conference, held in 1990, also in Paris, reviewed the implementation of the SNPA and adopted a strengthened Program of Action, which the LDCs and their developed partners have undertaken to implement throughout the 1990s.
In addition, the work of UNCTAD has given political impetus to action in other international forums. Examples are the setting of the official development assistance target at 0.7 per cent of the GNP of donor countries, the improvement of the International Monetary Fund's compensatory financing facility for export earnings shortfalls of developing countries, and the creation of special drawing rights (SDRs).
The ninth meeting of UNCTAD, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in April 1996, attracted representatives of 188 countries for discussions on the theme of "promoting growth and sustainable development in a globalizing and liberalizing world economy." The conference is UNCTAD's highest policy-making body and normally meets every four years to adopt major policy guidelines. South African President Nelson Mandela called for more dialogue on world trade to ensure that poor countries are not discriminated against (ibid). Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali affirmed the importance of UNCTAD both as an advocate for the most disadvantaged countries and as an irreplaceable forum for democratizing international economic relations (UN press release SG/SM/5971, 4/26/96).
Many environmentalists fear that overemphasis on trade liberalization and market growth will result in the degradation of natural resources and a lowering of environmental protection standards. But developing countries fear that environmental protection requirements will further limit their access to international markets. For example, in April 1996 a WTO panel ruled that US regulations on environmental standards for imported gasoline, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act, discriminated against foreign oil refiners (New York Times, 4/30/96). A new Committee on Trade and Environment has been organized by the WTO and will give a report to the WTO's first ministerial meeting, scheduled to be held in Singapore in December 1996. One of the topics under discussion is whether WTO rules should exempt the trade provisions of existing international environmental treaties. The Montreal Protocol, for example, restricts trade in ozone-depleting chemicals, and the Basel Convention limits exports of hazardous wastes.
Even without specific trade provisions, however, environmental treaties have effects on economic competitiveness and may impose higher costs on developing countries. In 1995, the CSD (Commisssion on Sustainable Development) invited UNCTAD to analyze the relationship of environmental protection to international competitiveness, job creation, and development. The study will be presented to the CSD at its 1997 meeting (E/CN.17/1996/8/Add.1, 4/10/96).
From A Global Agenda: Issues Before the 51st General Assembly of the United Nations, (excerpts from Environment and Sustainable Development, by Gail V. Karlsson). Copyright 1996 by the United Nations Association of the United States of America. Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
