of buffer stocks for designated "core" commodities. addition, the common fund would be empowered to lend money to individual international commodity organizations, intervene directly in the market in certain cases, and finance the accumulation of stocks for approved commodities where commodity arrangements did not exist.

In

The UNCTAD secretariat proposed implementing the integrated program in two phases: (1) achievement of consensus among governments on the objectives, measures, and identification of the core commodities and on the procedures and timetable for negotiating the detailed arrangements; and (2) negotiation of the international arrangements for individual commodities, including those for which stocking was not envisaged. The secretariat expressed the hope that the first phase could be completed at UNCTAD IV in May 1976, and suggested that some type of central coordinating machinery be established in UNCTAD to guide the second phase of the negotiations.

Although the United States, along with other developed countries, agreed with many of the objectives of the proposed integrated program, it believed that the program was overly oriented toward price-fixing, indexation, and other forms of government intervention in the market. The United States emphasized that a thorough case-by-case analysis of the factors affecting each commodity was a prerequisite for any realistic consideration of measures to improve and strengthen the functioning of that commodity's market. In particular, the United States had reservations about the common funding element of the proposed integrated program, because buffer stocks financed by the common fund might not be necessary or desirable for all commodities, and the methods and sources of financing should therefore vary with the circumstances.

The Committee on Commodities was unable to reach a consensus on the merits of the integrated program as proposed by the secretariat and in December adopted a resolution simply noting without recommendations its belief that the stage had been reached at which decisions were possible at UNCTAD IV.

Invisibles and Financing Related to Trade

Debt problems and the flow of financial resources to developing countries were the major topics discussed by the 87-member Committee on Invisibles and Financing Related to Trade at its session in Geneva in OctoberNovember. The Committee adopted unanimously a resolution that invited the IBRD and regional development institutions to consider establishing or expanding facilities that would provide export credit refinancing

for developing countries as a means of promoting their exports. Although it joined in the consensus on the resolution, the United States explained that it was generally opposed to programs for refinancing export credits since that would divert funds from higher priority development requirements for the countries most in need of assistance.

Several other draft resolutions were proposed but were not adopted. One, submitted by the developing countries, called for the liberalization of drawing requirements for developing countries in all IMF facilities in order to compensate them for payments deficits due to recession and inflation in the industrial countries. An alternative draft, proposed by the Western European and other developed countries, called for the liberalization of the IMF compensatory financing facility to take into account the export shortfalls of developing countries. This, however, was not acceptable to the latter, which wanted compensation for rising import bills as well as export shortfalls. The Committee compromised by instructing the UNCTAD Secretary General to consult with the IMF Managing Director on the proposals made by both groups.

In order to alleviate their debt problems, the developing countries proposed a resolution requesting delegates at UNCTAD IV to consider granting generalized relief for all official debts, and to consider establishing a multilateral financial institution to refinance the commercial debts of developing countries. This draft was unanimously opposed by all the major creditor countries who stressed the importance of a case-by-case approach to debt relief. The Committee finally decided to request the UNCTAD Secretary General to carry out intensive consultations with concerned creditor and debtor countries in an effort to facilitate decisionmaking in this area at UNCTAD IV.

The developing countries also submitted a resolution calling for developed countries to achieve by a certain date the target for the Second Development Decade of granting 0.7% of their GNP as official development assistance, and deciding that all measurements of financial flows should be made on a net basis (that is, substracting interest payments and other flows from developing to developed countries). The draft resolution also requested the developed countries to improve access to their capital markets for developing countries by such means as exempting them from administrative measures governing the issuance of foreign bonds and providing government guarantees of their financial obligations. Since almost all the developed countries were unable to accept this proposal, it was decided to request the UNCTAD Group of Governmental Experts on the Concepts of the Present Aid and Flow Targets to examine recent developments in aid programs and the

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compliance of these programs with UN resolutions on aid and flow targets. In addition, the Committee decided to request the UNCTAD Secretary General to prepare periodic reports on private and official financial flows to developing countries. It was agreed, however, that such reports should not duplicate the work of other international institutions in this area.

Transfer of Technology

The United States was represented on UNCTAD's intergovernmental group of experts on a code of conduct for the transfer of technology, which met twice during 1975, in May and again in November. At the earlier meeting the developing countries introduced proposals for a detailed and legally binding code of conduct for the transfer of technology. At the later meeting, the developed countries responded with proposals for voluntary and universally applicable guidelines for the transfer of technology. At both meetings the debate revealed significant differences between the groups on such questions as (1) the legal character of the code, i.e., should it be a binding treaty or voluntary guidelines; (2) basic concept of the code, i.e., should it provide for government control and intervention or for a free market; (3) protection of industrial property; (4) restrictive business practices; (5) responsibilities of enterprises; and (6) settlement of disputes. Because of these differences, the experts could not agree on an outline for a code of conduct, although they did agree on a list of chapter headings. The group of experts submitted reports to UNCTAD's 69-member Committee on Transfer of Technology, which held its first session in November-December, 1975. The Committee decided to transmit the reports and annexes of the expert group to the TDB for consideration prior to UNCTAD IV, where decisions were expected to be made on the code, including its legal character.

The Committee also approved a resolution on the promotion of the technological capability of developing countries. Among other things, the resolution (1) requested the UNCTAD Secretary General to undertake or continue studies of policies and measures that could be taken to reduce the technological dependence of developing countries; (2) recommended the establishment within UNCTAD of an advisory service to assist, inter alia, in (a) setting up at the regional and subregional levels centers for the transfer and development of technology, (b) preparing national plans and policies, and (c) carrying out training programs; and (3) requested the UNCTAD Secretary General to prepare studies on the transfer of technology in special areas and on mitigating the adverse consequences of reverse transfer of technology from the developing to the developed countries.

The United States also participated in an UNCTAD group of governmental experts on the role of the patent system in the transfer of technology. This group met in September 1975 to consider aspects of the system in the context of a possible revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property to reflect the special needs of the developing countries. The group's conclusions and recommendations on such issues as promotion of technology transfer, the working of patents and avoidance of abuses, other forms of invention protection, trademarks, preferential treatment for developing countries, and technical assistance were included in a resolution adopted by the Committee on Transfer of Technology on December 5. The resolution, which recommended that the process of revision of the Paris Convention should take full account of the responsibilities and competences of WIPO and UNCTAD, called on UNCTAD to continue to contribute to the work being done in WIPO on the economic and developmental aspects of the international patent system. The United States supported the resolution because it recognizes UNCTAD's interests in these aspects, but it continues to believe that proposals for revising the Paris Convention should be the responsibility of WIPO.

Shipping

The 79-member Committee on Shipping held its seventh session in Geneva in November 1975. Three resolutions of particular interest to developing countries--on technical assistance for shipping and ports, freight rates, and finance for ship acquisition--were adopted by consensus. In addition, considerable attention was given to the growing congestion in the ports of many developing countries, and the Committee unanimously decided to request the UNCTAD Secretary General to convene a group of experts in 1976 to study this problem and make recommendations. The Committee concluded that no maritime shipping matters currently under its review were sufficiently developed to remit to UNCTAD IV for decision.

The Committee's Working Group on International Shipping Legislation held its fourth session in Geneva in January-February 1975 to examine the commercial and legal aspects of charter party/ contracts and to consider the need for mandatory international rules and the standardization of charter party clauses. No conclusions were reached. However, the UNCTAD Secretariat was requested to carry out additional studies on various

6/ A charter party is an agreement between a shipowner and a carrier, merchant, or the like for the commercial lease of a ship or space on a ship for a particular voyage or period of time.

aspects of charter parties, and the subject will be considered further at the seventh session of the Working Group in 1978. In November the Committee on Shipping decided to enlarge the Working Group by five members and elected without opposition 43 states, including the United States, as members for the following 3 years.

The 1974 Convention on a Code of Conduct for Liner

Conferences, 1/ developed under the aegis of the Committee on Shipping, sets forth international rules to govern maritime shipping conferences. The convention was open for signature until June 30, 1975, by which time 30 countries had signed it. However, only 11 countries, representing 1.7% of the world's liner (general cargo) tonnage, became contracting parties by the end of 1975. The convention will not enter into force until at least 24 countries with at least 25% of the world's liner tonnage become contracting parties. The United States voted against adoption of the convention and remains opposed to its entry into force in its present form because of the anticompetitive nature of several of its key provisions.

Trade

Trade issues were not as prominent in UNCTAD during 1975 as previously, since the attention of most countries focused on the seventh round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) which had been launched by the 1973 Tokyo Declaration. Nevertheless, a wide variety of trade issues were discussed to some extent in UNCTAD bodies.

Developing countries continued to urge the need for liberalization of both tariffs and nontariff barriers on a preferential basis for the developing countries. The developed countries had already agreed in the Tokyo Declaration to give special attention to the trade problems of the developing countries and to try to find ways to give them special treatment where feasible and appropriate. They pointed out, however, that the appropriate forum for such action was the MTN, not UNCTAD.

The developing countries also stressed, particularly in the Committee on Manufactures, which held its seventh session in Geneva in late June, the need to restructure the world's industrial capacity to allow them to develop their potential advantages in certain types of manufactured exports. The United States made clear that it could not enter into negotiations for the

7/ Liner conferences are two or more shipping lines grouped together to fix uniform freight rates and sometimes to concert their business activities in other ways. Most U.S. shipping lines are conference members.