12:22 PM Nov 8, 1996

GROUP OF 15: SOMETHING NEW TO CHEW ON

Geneva/Harare, Nov 6 (TWN/IPS) -- The Group of 15 ended their sixth summit here this week with reiterations of their leader's determination to consult and coordinate for South-North cooperation and for evolving common positions on international issues.

While much of what they said, in their final communique and the closing statement of President Robert Mugabe (texts of which has been received here), covered familiar ground in earlier meetings and communiques, Harare showed an effort by them to come to grips with, and seek common ground, on opposition to the addition of new issues to the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

In addition to reiteration of pledges to enhance South-South cooperation, the Group of 15, ended its Nov. 3-5 summit with a call for additional matters relating to the environment, labour and investment to be kept out of the WTO's terms of reference.

While they specifically ruled out bringing labour and other social issues to the WTO agenda, and expressed serious concern over recent enactment of laws for unilateral measures having extra-territorial effects, the participants at the Summit from Asia and Africa were also opposed to efforts to bring investment and other new issues on the WTO agenda.

President Mugabe, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, Prime Minister Deva Gowda of India, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (whose participation had not been previously announced, and spoke on behalf of Africa at the opening session), Foreign Minister Ali Alatas of Indonesia were among those who spoke spoke and specifically ruled out the WTO considering the investment question and other issues not covered by the WTO agreements.

The G-15 (named after the original fifteen that formed the group) stressed the importance they placed on the Singapore Ministerial Conference, the first biennial Ministerial meeting of the WTO, to concentrate on reviewing the functioning and implementation of the existing agreements, and on concrete and meaningful measures to further such implementation.

Among others, the G-15:

* spoke of the persistent problems of indebtedness, particularly of the LDCs, welcomed some recent initiatives of the multilateral financial institutions, and called for speedy and flexible implementation;

* condemned all acts of terrorism and committed their countries to cooperate international to combat the problem;

* affirmed corruption was both a domestic and international menace affecting all countries, developing and developed, and said the "fight against this scourge should be the responsibility of governments within the realm of their national legislation.

* pledged to continue and further South-South cooperation, and renewed their call for "regular, constructive and fruitful dialogue" with their industrial partners in the Group of 7.

Noting the acknowledged fact (in the G-7 communiques) that developing countries are contributing, substantially and far in excess of their economic weight, to the growth of international trade and global economy, the G-15 said: "A revitalized North-South dialogue is therefore in the interest of all."

The group has invited Kenya to participate, and Malaysia as the next host country is to take the needed steps.

The Latin American participants (with none of them participating at Summit level), however "watered" down the language and eliminate clear stands on the investment issue.

Jamaica from the Caribbean was represented by its Prime Minister.

The Summit ended with Mugabe handing over to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, which is to host the next Summit in 1997, assuming the Chair of the G15.

Jamaica's offer to host the 1998 Summit, extended at Harare by Prime Minister Patterson, was accepted.

Foreign Ministers of Malaysia, Zimbabwe and Jamaica will form the troika to coordinate the G-15 matters between now and the next summit.

IPS Harare adds:

Stressing that the WTO is concerned with rules of trade between nations, the G-15 leaders agreed to "resist any attempts to bring labour and other social issues under the umbrella of the WTO".

But they also noted that it was up to developing countries themselves to avoid being marginalised by the globalisation that has been sweeping the world in recent years.

"The primary responsibility for the development and integration of our countries into the global trading system rests with ourselves," noted the leaders in a joint communique issued at the end of the three-day summit.

At their last summit in Argentina, the Group had placed South-South cooperation, as their main priority.

Assessing whether the organisation has made any progress in this area, according to some analysts, is still difficult to ascertain.

"It's very difficult to assess because you have many countries (within the grouping) with very different economic development," said Tony Hawkins, economic analyst and professor of business studies at the University of Zimbabwe here. "Some are quite developed like Malaysia and others are still at a peripheral level of development. So one country might say it (South-South cooperation) works while others say it does not work. It all depends with the levels of economic development," Hawkins told IPS.

The G-15 is, in fact, extremely heterogenous, comprising countries with widely divergent levels of economic development, market size, and interests.

Indonesia, for example, has an internal market of 190 million consumers, and it belongs to the economically dynamic Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Malaysia is also a member.

Argentina and Brazil are members of the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), an economic zone of just over 200 million consumers.

The four countries, along with India and Mexico have relatively strong domestic industries when compared to some other members of the G-15. They are also among the top 10 destinations of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world.

According to UN Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) figures for 1993, total FDI stock in Indonesia was about 44 billion U.S. dollars, which made it the third largest host of FDI worldwide.

The fourth to sixth slots are occupied by Mexico (41.9 billion), Brazil (40.4 billion) and Malaysia (26.9 billion), with Argentina in eighth place at 21.7 billion.

On the other hand, Jamaica and Zimbabwe with domestic markets of 2.5 and 11 million respectively, are among the world's less popular FDI destinations and belong to regional groupings that are moving towards economic integration at snail's pace.

For example, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to which Zimbabwe belongs, has given itself eight years to reach the point at which Mercosur and Asean were years ago.

Income levels also differ. Argentina and Chile aim to achieve First World status in a few years (Chile plans to reach an annual per capita income equivalent to that of Spain -- 8,000 U.S. dollars) -- in five years.

Malaysia is one of the newly industrialised countries, while Zimbabwe is grouped among the world's low income nations, its per capita GNP of $500 is less than an eighth of Mexico's $4,180 in 1994.

Moreover, some members of the group are already significant foreign investors, such as Mexico, India and Malaysia -- unlike Zimbabwe, Senegal and Jamaica.

However, the 15 spoke with one voice at this week's summit, stressing the need to improve South-South links.

"Cooperation among developing countries is ... an important element in the chain of the necessary conditions for our countries to maximally gain from trading opportunities created by domestic reform, globalisation and liberalisation and regional trading arrangements," the leaders noted in their communique.

They added that their countries continued to face tremendous difficulties in implementing the accords that came out of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to the WTO's creation and were thus against attempts by developed countries to introduce new issues relating to labour and the environment into the WTO's agenda.

In this regard, the G-15 instructed their trade ministers to meet prior to or during the WTO's First Ministerial Conference, to be held next month in Singapore, with a view to reaching common positions on these issues.

While the developed nations have been pushing the inclusion of new issues in the WTO's mandate by citing the persistence of phenomena such as child labour and the existence of lower environmental standards in some countries, many developing nations see this as a pretext for protectionism and as unjust.

"The future of the world trading system, the legitimacy of the WTO and the prosperity of both developing and developed countries depend on the respect by all nations for established principles and rules of international justice," Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said.

However, Dr. Mahathir, Malaysia's prime minister was hopeful. "We should not despair because the potential exists for us in the developing world to exert our rights and ensure a better future for ourselves," he said.