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'G-77 members unhappy over global trade benefits uneven sharing'

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan's permanent representative to UN, Inamul Haq, has said that developing countries are unhappy with the "uneven distribution" of the benefits of trade liberalisation.

He was addressing the ceremony of handing over the charge of the chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China to Nigeria here on Friday.

Haq said this dissatisfaction was manifest at the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle which ended in a fiasco.

"Our unity was the most important factor in averting the dangers and risks of a new round of trade liberalisation and the inclusion of social and environmental issues in the agenda of WTO," the ambassador said.

"But the Group cannot rest and must actively pursue the implementation of our its own vision of trade liberalisation. Pakistan believes that UNCTAD-x would be an appropriate forum to do so," Haq said.

Other important processes, he said, included the preparations for the South Summit, the 'Millennium assembly,' the high-level intergovernmental meeting on financing for development, review of the world summit for children, the reviews of the Beijing conference on women, and the World Summit on social development.

He said Nigeria has also to steer the Group through the discussions on UNDP administrator's business plan during the forthcoming session of the executive board of UNDP/UNFPA.

"Pakistan believe that the Group should speak with one voice in defending the development orientation of the UN operational activities. These activities should respond to the demands of the developing countries and should not seek to promote policy agendas to be imposed on the developing countries under the rubric of good governance or so-called upstream intervention," Haq said.

He said there was an urgent need to rethink the working methods of the Group. He urged Nigeria to initiate action on the twin tracks of the establishment of a mechanism to enhance the Group's capacity for substantive analysis of the issues and formulation of its responses, and also the strengthening of the follow-up mechanisms for the implementation of its decisions. As a first step, convening the long overdue tenth meeting of the inter-governmental follow-up and coordination committee (IFCC) could be considered.

He said under the leadership of Nigeria, the Group would continue to move unitedly towards the goals of development and prosperity for the countries of G-77 and China.

Guyana successfully led the Group through difficult negotiations, especially during the 54th session of the UN General Assembly. It played a critical role in forging, consensus within the Group as well as with the partners on extremely divisive issues. Under Guyana's able stewardship the Group made considerable progress particularly on the vital issues of financing for development, globalisaton, trade and external debt, Haq said. APP