Feb 9, 1985
RENEWED PRESSURES ON THIRD WORLD.
BY CHAKRAVARTHI RAGHAVAN, GENEVA, FEBRUARY 8 (IFDA)— Third World countries in GATT have been consulting among themselves on their tactics and stands in face of renewed pressures on them from the Industrial countries.-"Instead of the traditional picture of the Third World putting forth demands and seeking to get them accepted by the north, these days we have to fight a constant battle merely to prevent further erosion of our position, and stem northern demands against U.S.", one Third World diplomat here commented.- The call from the U.S. President, in his state of union message, for a new round of trade negotiations, and to include within it the "services" issue, Third World diplomats say is nothing new, and had been mentioned in Reagan's address at the Fund/Bank meetings in 1984.- Apart from the pressures inside GATT in 1984, which the Third World turned back, there have been renewed pressures this year, within GATT and at such informal gatherings as took place last week at the Davos Symposium organised by the European Management Forum, for a new round and to include trade in services.- Third World diplomats say the main thrust of these moves is to persuade the Third World to agree to a new round, and force them to open up their economies to traditional trade in manufactures, transnational investments, and the so-called "trade in services".- The net result would be to increase Third World dependency development, and enlarge Third World problems of balance of payments and current account deficits.- The U.S. might have some other trade interests vis-a-vis the EEC and Japan, and mainly in the area of agricultural trade, but the major effort is directed against the Third World, diplomats say.- Also they say, both the EEC and Japan in order to resist pressures on themselves, would like to bring the Third World into a new round, where the collective interest of the north could coalesce against the Third World, and in the battle over services, their own mutual problems as in agriculture could be deflected.- Some of the Industrial countries have made it plain that their only interest in a new round would be if the Third World came in.In recent GATT meetings and elsewhere, the EEC has been suggesting that the rest of the world should help the U.S. administration to meet domestic pressures and resist protectionism, and this could best be done by looking at some of the U.S. ideas like services issues.- Third World countries say all this is nothing more than an effort to make the Third World pay a price. The EEC itself shows no inclination of paying the price of abandoning its common agricultural policy, they note.- The U.S. moves for trade in services were initiated soon after Reagan came to office in 1980, when Trade Representative Brock envisioned a "Reagan round", and to bring trade in high technology and services in that round.- The Third World countries resisted it successfully, and at the 1982 GATT Ministerial rejected both the U.S. idea of "north-south" trade round and bringing "trade services" into GATT.- The compromise package of the Ministerial declaration gave much higher priority to the pending issues of trade in goods.- The Industrial countries committed themselves to a standstill and rollback on protectionism, and a detailed work programme on other major areas of GATT competence including in agriculture was agreed to.- In the area of services, the only agreement was an invitation to interested Contracting Parties to undertake national examinations, and exchange information among themselves inter alia through international organisations such as GATT.- It was also agreed that in 1984, the annual meeting of the CPs would review the results of the national examinations, and consider whether any "multilateral action in these matters is appropriate and desirable".- Several Third World countries entered specific reservations on GATT competence.- The efforts of the U.S. and its supporters to use the "exchange of information" to inveigle a GATT secretariat role was prevented by the Third World, and only informal meetings for exchanges could be held in 1984, on "GATT premises" but without any further secretariat role.- While the U.S. and the secretariat had been pushing some of these ideas, the other parts of the work programme have remained largely unimplemented, and what little progress was achieved at end of 1984 was merely procedural on how the work is to be continued in 1985.- The Third World in 1984 resisted efforts of the U.S. and Japan, with some support from other west Europeans, for the launch of a new round.-In a paper in May 1984, Third World countries rejected any such move, and insisted on prior implementation of the standstill and rollback commitments, as also earlier commitments for removal of discriminatory restrictions against Third World exports.- At the November 1984 GATT CPs meeting they went a step further, and said if these were done they themselves would initiate a move for negotiations in GATT on trade in goods, making clear they would not still not agree on services.-Third World diplomats say that so far their position is not to agree to these, and insist on discussions and work in GATT on the basis of the work programme, and the joint Third World position paper tabled at the 1984 GATT CPs meeting.-