In his opening statement to the 49th session of the Trade and Development Board (Geneva, 7-18 October), UNCTAD´s Secretary General, Rubens Ricupero, called on the international community to maintain the multilateral approach in trade negotiations which, he said, addressed the legitimate aspirations of developing countries for a more balanced trade system.
Echoing Mr. Ricupero´s concerns, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, WTO Director-General and keynote speaker at the high-level segment of the Board, called for continued cooperation between WTO and development-oriented institutions to make the post-Doha process and the multilateral trade agreements truly beneficial for all countries.
The President of the Board, H.E. Mr. Dimiter Tzantchev, Ambassador of Bulgaria to the United Nations in Geneva, stressed the need for UNCTAD to intensify its action in favour of the economies in transition. He also noted that the preparatory process for UNCTAD XI, to be held in Brazil in 2004, would start this year.
Summary of the Secretary-General´s statement
In his opening statement, Mr. Ricupero said that a comprehensive discussion of the current international situation, which posed two types of dangers, was needed. First, he noted that strategy and security issues had overshadowed economic concerns and warned that once again development problems could take second place. Another danger, closely related to the first, was the risk that by concentrating on security issues, the development prerequisites for developing countries and countries in transition would be disregarded (improvement in terms of market access, availability of foreign direct investment and technology).
The elimination of barriers, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall, had led to a number of positive changes in international relations. Physical and legal barriers among countries and among people had been removed and, with the conclusion of the Uruguay Round and the creation of the World Trade Organization, economic barriers were also being dismantled.
Although globalization was still discussed, said Mr. Ricupero, it was losing its importance as political issues gained ground over economic matters. However, the greatest risk of all was that new walls - physical, legal and political - were being erected. Rich and poor alike felt insecure in a world, which was becoming an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable place. The roots of this insecurity were multiple and measures had to be taken against all kinds of threats.
Concluding on a more optimistic note, Mr. Ricupero noted that in international trade multilateral structures had so far been preserved. The on-going multilateral negotiations had focused on the need to address the legitimate aspirations of developing countries to achieve a more balanced system. It was important to ensure that this multilateral approach would demolish barriers and not erect new ones.
Finally, solidarity was indivisible, he said, and the economy could not be dissociated from ethical values. Recent events had shown that governments and markets could not work properly if they were based on opportunistic and amoral behaviour.
Summary of the statement by the Director-General of the World Trade Organization
During the high-level Segment of the Board, which considered the measures needed for the post-Doha process to work best for development, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi briefed the Board on the current status of the trade negotiating process. He stressed the need to move forward simultaneously on all the main issues in time for the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun (Mexico) next year. He also emphasized the need for WTO to cooperate with UNCTAD and other international and regional organizations in implementing trade-related technical cooperation programmes. In this context, he referred to what he called "trade clinics": joint expert missions to developing countries to carry out "diagnostic analyses" of their trade needs.
Organization of work of the Board
One of the issues before the Board is interdependence from a trade and development perspective. On 9 October a panel of experts will examine what lies behind the good performance of developing countries in world trade and whether it has translated into an equally strong performance in manufacturing value added and economic growth. The experts are Mr. Wen Hai, Professor of Economics and Senior Deputy Director of the China Centre for Economic Research of the Beijing University; Mr. Bernard Hoekman, Research Manager of the International Trade Group in the World Bank Development Research Group; Mr. S. P. Shukla, Former Ambassador of India to GATT and former Indian Secretary to Development of Women and Children, Commerce and Finance; and Mr. Adrian Wood, Chief Economist and Director of Economics of the Business and Statistics Division of the UK Department for International Development. On this question, the Board will use as a background document the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report 2002 (UNCTAD/TDR/2002; see also press releases TAD/INF/PR41, 42 and 43).
The Board will also review the situation in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), particularly the progress in the implementation of the programme of action adopted at the 3rd LDC Conference in Brussels last year. On 11 and 14 October, delegates will discuss the effective benefits derived by the 49 LDCs from their inclusion in this category, which was created by the United Nations in 1977. Two background documents will be used for this discussion: Implementation of UNCTAD-wide activities in favour of LDCs (TD/B/49/6) and The least developed countries status: Effective benefits and the question of graduation (TD/B/49/7).
On 15 and 16 October, the Board will review the finding of the latest UNCTAD report on Economic Development in Africa (document TD/B/49/8). This report reviews the policy content of the poverty reduction programmes in Africa and analyses the extent to which the new poverty focus of the Bretton Woods institutions differs from the structural adjustment programmes that have been widely applied in the region (see press release TAD/INF/PR59).
On 17 October, the Board will consider the report on UNCTAD´s assistance to the Palestinian people (document TD/B/49/9; see also press release TAD/INF/PR57).
The Bureau of the Board
The Bureau of the Board is composed of the following ten Vice-Presidents: Mr. Iouri Afanassiev (Russian Federation), H.E. Mr. Boniface Chidyausiku (Zimbabwe), H.E. Mr. Luis Felipe de Seixas Corrêa (Brazil), H.E. Mr. Nathan Irumba (Uganda), Mr. Toshiyuki Iwado (Japan), Mr. Douglas M. Griffiths (United States of America), Mr. François Leger (France), H.E. Mr. Samuel T. Ramel (Philippines), H.E. Mr. Lester Mejía Solís (Nicaragua) and Mr. Eberhard von Schubert (Germany).
Mr. Mehdi Fakheri (Islamic Republic of Iran) was elected Rapporteur of the session. Mr. Stefano Lazzarotto (Switzerland) was elected Chairman of sessional committee I on the Programme of action for the LDCs for the decade 2001-2010, while Mr. Falou Samb (Senegal) will chair sessional committee II on structural adjustment and poverty reduction in Africa.
