MANY TO MANY 66 – THE OECD AND UNCTAD CONFERENCES

Issue 66
December 1998
THE OECD AND UNCTAD CONFERENCES

THE OECD AND UNCTAD CONFERENCES

Both the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) , with overlapping concerns, held conferences in October/November 1998, the OECD in Paris followed a fortnight later by the UNCTAD Partners for Development Summit in Lyon (France) . Both conferences are concerned with devising a global framework for economic investment and development and their outcome holds important implications for. the national/global economy and for the future well being of us all.

In previous issues we have reported upon the OECD's draft Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and the criticism it evoked from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local government bodies and concerned individuals around the world on account of the draconian set of rules and regulations by which it was to be enforced. It was seen by its critics to favour the narrow interests of foreign investors and corporations to the detriment of the rights of labour, the civil sector of society, the environment and even the sovereign rights of governments.

The Paris OECD meeting was blighted at the outset by the withdrawal of France from the negotiations, with her citing of the sovereignty issue together with other concerns to a number of OEM and non-OECD members. The United States also expressed opposition to the MAI in its present form.

A significant feature of the Paris consultations was the meeting of the Executive Committee in Special Session (ECSS). This meeting was chaired by US Under Secretary of State, Stuart Eisenstat (the newly appointed chairman of the OECD) and was marked by a noticeably different approach from that which had prevailed at earlier meetings. It was attended for the first time by senior members of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), together with the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Renato Ruggiero participating for the discussions about the role the OECD could play in helping to deal with the global financial crisis.

There was agreement on the importance of devoting more time to considering how best to broaden participation of non-OECD country members and the need to engage in further discussion with representatives of civil society (business, labour, NGOS, consumer and other groups) so as to reach the shared goal of a multilateral agreement on investment and deal effectively with the concerns that had been expressed. This will clearly take more time than had previously been envisaged for the completion of the MAI negotiations.

THE UNCTAD PARTNERS FOR DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT

In his message to the UNCTAD conference, held in Lyon from 9-12 November 1998, UN Secretary-General, Kofi Anan, described Partners for Development as "an example of the new United Nations in action – an Organisation open as never before to the involvement of the private sector, NGOs, academic institutions and others among the increasingly robust forces of civil society, a place where all key players can come together in common cause to work side by side with governments in our global mission of peace and development." He stressed that while globalisation was drawing us all closer together, offering wider choices and helping to improve our quality of life, millions were experiencing globalisation not as a great new opportunity but as a profoundly disruptive force which attacked both their living standards and their culture. "We need", he said "more than ever to come together to manage change and we need more than ever to work together as partners." All needed to pool their efforts to find global solutions for global problems and we must make sure that those solutions do not only serve the interests of the strong. "UNCTAD already plays a key role in promoting better standards of living around the world and in helping us reap the best of globalisation while protecting against its negative consequences." This gathering, concluded the Secretary-General, "promises to ventilate new ideas, to forge new partnerships and to inject new dynamism into the cause of development."

The first day of the conference opened with calls from Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister of France, and Rubens Ricurpero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD for new and effective teamwork to help the world's poorest countries to participate fully in the global economy, benefit from stable private investment and have equal access to trade systems and electronic communications networks. Mr Jospin called for emphasis on social well-being, especially through efforts at the local level, for aid to countries with heavy foreign-debt burdens and for a more stable international and financial and monetary framework. Rubens Ricupero, said most development aims could only be achieved with the help of civil society and the private sector. It was necessary for all of a country's people to participate even if official help was the most common channel. But "in the end the impetus for development must come from people, industry, Government and finally from international organisations."

Conference delegates urged the OECD to take into account concerns of non-OECD countries and to work at enhancing the possibilities of small and medium-sized enterprises and industries.

Government officials including heads of State and high-level banking officials stressed the need for partnerships between governments, international organisations, the private sector and civil society and themes repeatedly mentioned were that electronic commerce must be made fully available to developing countries and that micro finance, with its small scale and emphasis on personal responsibility, was an example of a useful method of helping nations and peoples to escape poverty. Political, social and institutional stability were critical for attracting private investment.

K. Bajaj, State Secretary of India, pointed to the Internet revolution as being responsible for competition becoming fiercer than ever before. This new technology, he said, should not be left to the developed world but should be "seized upon" by developing countries too. He highlighted India's effort to provide national access to the Internet for all.

In view of the difficulties experienced by the OECD in formulating an internationally acceptable legal framework for a multilateral agreement on investment, and the need expressed at the Paris October conference to engage in further and more wide-ranging discussions before finalising any such framework, we suggest that it is relevant and timely to draw attention to UNCTAD's already existing "Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices" adopted by the UN General Assembly by Resolution 35/63 of 5 December 1980, of which the following are the objectives:

*To ensure that restrictive business practices do not impede or negate the realisation of benefits that should arise from the liberalisation of tariff and non-tariff barriers affecting world trade, particularly those affecting the trade and development of developing countries;

*To attain greater efficiency in international trade and development, particularly that of developing countries, in accordance with national aims of economic and social development and existing economic structures, such as through

a) The creation, encouragement and protection of competition;

b) Control of the concentration of capital and/or economic power;

c) Encouragement of innovation;

*To protect and promote social welfare in general and, in particular, the interests of cons s in both developed and developing countries;

*To eliminate the disadvantages to trade and development which may result from the restrictive business practices of translational corporations or other enterprises, and thus help to maximise benefits to international trade and particularly the trade and development of developing countries;

To provide a set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the control of restrictive business practices for adoption at the international level and thereby to facilitate the adoption and strengthening of laws and policies in this area at the national and regional levels.

(see http//www.unctad.org/en/subsites/cpolicy/cpsetp4.htm)

There is reason to be puzzled by the anomaly revealed in the fact that, whereas the OECD as an Organisation per se lies outside the United Nations System and is therefore, it might be argued, not subject to UN constraints, the high-level government representatives participating in this Organisation belong to UN states which are bound by the principles and articles of the UN Charter and therefore subject to the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly. It might well be asked, what conclusion is to be drawn from the fact that despite UNCTAD's specific involvement in multilateral investment issues, this Organisation "does not have access to the OEM negotiations on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment"?

This anomaly could be rectified by the proposed framework for a multilateral agreement on investment being drafted by an Organisation within the UN System, such as UNCTAD or the World Trade Organisation (WTO) strictly in accordance with the above mentioned rules and principles. Even if these should -need revising and updating, their objectives, especially with regards to developing countries, are abundantly clear.

What differentiated the Partners for Development from most intergovernmental meetings was the lack of concern shown by participants for negotiating an agreed text. UNCTAD served rather as a platform or a catalyst for bringing together outside parties around established aspects of the organisation's work. In this, the conference was a notable success. It brought together some 2,700 representatives of the private sector, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and governments from 172 countries, including over 50 Ministers from all regions of the world.

During the four-day meeting 18 partnership agreements were finalised between the UNCTAD Secretariat and private and public organisations, covering the fields of international transport, Investment promotion, electronic commerce, the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises and of entrepreneurship, the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable development and agricultural commodities.

It is expected that attention will now switch to following up the many initiatives launched in Lyon "creating the means to spawn other NGO/private sector partnerships in developing countries." To this end, the French Cooperation Minister proposed the establishment in Geneva of a centre for NGOs and the business sector, linking with UNCTAD and the WTO.

More information see http://www.partners.unctad.org/english/R2/coverleaf.htm

Many to Many
a quarterly publication issued by
Operation Peace through Unity
An accredited NGO in association with the UN Dept of Public Information

Anthony Brooke and Gita Brooke, co-founders
Te Rangi, 4 Allison Street, Wanganui 5001, New Zealand
phone/fax: +64-6-345-5714 ~ e-mail: larrym@clear.net.nz

Many to Many
under the aegis of
Operation Peace Through Unity
is a communicating link between
'we, the peoples' of all nations, races, creeds and ideologies offering in the spirit of the preamble of the United Nations Charter an instrument for the furthering of better relationships based on deepening mutual understanding and the aspiration to promote unity and cooperation beyond all differences.