The progress of the developing countries requires the cooperation of all, and it is futile to test proposals on the assumption that what one gains the other must necessarily lose.

All of us-the industrial and developing countries-have unfilled aspirations at home. But we are also part of an interdependent world with collective obligations and responsibilities. We each have vested interests in the other's welfare.

My country believes strongly in this kind of interdependence and in these kinds of vested interests. We have been, and continue to be, committed to help those who wish to help themselves, and we undertake this commitment, as President Kennedy said in his inaugural address, for one reason only: "because it is right." 12

Document II-32

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development: FINAL ACT, ADOPTED AT GENEVA, JUNE 16, 1964 (EXCERPTS) 13

PREAMBLE

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has adopted this Final Act.

SECTION I. BACKGROUND

14

1. The States participating in the Conference are determined to achieve the high purposes embodied in the United Nations Charter "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom"; " to seek a better and more effective system of international economic co-operation, whereby the division of the world into areas of poverty and plenty may be banished and prosperity achieved by all; and to find ways by which the human and material resources of the world may be harnessed for the abolition of poverty everywhere. In an age when scientific progress has put unprecedented abundance within man's reach, it is essential that the flows of world trade should help to eliminate the wide economic disparities among nations. The international community must combine its efforts to ensure that all countries-regardless of size, of wealth, of economic and social system-enjoy the benefits of international trade for their economic development and social progress.

2. Recognizing that universal peace and prosperity are closely linked and that the economic growth of the developing countries will also contribute to the economic growth of the developed countries, realizing the danger of a widening gulf in living standards between peoples, and convinced of the benefits of international co-operation with a view to helping the developing countries to reach a higher standard of life, the States signatories of this Final Act are resolved, in a sense of human solidarity, "to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples."

1915

3. In endorsing the decision to convene the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the General Assembly of the United Nations was motivated by certain basic considerations.16 Economic and social progress throughout the

13 Text ibid., 1961, pp. 7-10.

13 U.N. doc. E/CONF. 46/L.28 (text as printed in Department of State Bulletin, Aug. 3, 1964, pp. 150-167).

16 Preamble to the U.N. Charter; text in American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, vol. I, pp. 134–161.

15 Ibid.

19 Reference is to Res. 1785 (XVII). Dec. 8. 1962; text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1962, pp. 167–170.

world depends in large measure on a steady expansion in international trade. The extensive development of equitable and mutually advantageous international trade creates a good basis for the establishment of neighbourly relations between States, helps to strengthen peace and an atmosphere of mutual confidence and understanding among nations, and promotes higher living standards and more rapid economic progress in all countries of the world. Finally, the accelerated economic development of the developing countries depends largely on a substantial increase in their share in international trade.

4. The task of development, which implies a complex of structural changes in the economic and social environment in which men live, is for the benefit of the people as a whole. The developing countries are already engaged in a determined attempt to achieve, by their own efforts, a breakthrough into self-sustaining economic growth which furthers social progress. These efforts must continue and be enlarged. Economic and social progress should go together. If privilege, extremes of wealth and poverty, and social injustice persist, then the goal of development is lost. If the social and cultural dimension of development is ignored, economic advance alone can bring no abiding benefit.

5. The developing countries recognize that they have the primary responsibility to raise the living standards of their peoples; but their national exertions to this end will be greatly impaired if not supplemented and strengthened by constructive international action based on respect for national sovereignty. An essential element of such action is that international policies in the field of trade and development should result in a modified international division of labour which is more rational and equitable and is accompanied by the necessary adjustments in world production and trade. The resultant increase in productivity and purchasing power of the developing countries will contribute to the economic growth of the industrialized countries as well, and thus become a means to world-wide prosperity.

6. The issues before the Conference have been at once challenging and urgent. While there are varying degrees of development, the joint income of the developing countries, with two-thirds of the world's population, is not much more than one-tenth of that of the industrialized countries. Moreover, the dramatic increase in the population of the developing countries multiplies the difficulties they face in assuring to their peoples even the simplest elements of a decent human life. The aim must be to create jointly new trade and new wealth, so as to share a common prosperity, and thereby avoid the waste and other unfavourable consequences of closed paths to development. The international community is called upon to join in a constructive and universal policy of co-operation for trade and development which will further economic progress throughout the world.

17

7. The designation of the nineteen-sixties as the United Nations Development Decade was a recognition of deep world-wide concern with the urgent necessity of raising the standard of living of the developing countries and an earnest of the resolve of the United Nations, working together, to accomplish this task. Wide concern has been expressed regarding the inadequacy of the Decade's objective of a minimum rate of growth of aggregate national income of 5 per cent per annum by 1970. To attain even this rate of growth it is essential that measures and action be taken by both the developing and the developed countries, including measures to raise the level and accelerate the rate of growth of earnings of the developing countries from trade, as a means of helping them to overcome their persistent external imbalance.

8. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was convened in order to provide, by means of international co-operation, appropriate solutions to the problems of world trade in the interest of all peoples and particularly to the urgent trade and development problems of the developing countries. In a period when their need for imports of development goods and for technical knowledge has been increasing, developing countries have been faced with a situation in which their export earnings and capacity to import goods and services have been inadequate. The growth in import requirements has not been matched by a commensurate expansion in export earnings. The resultant trade gap, which

17 In U.N. General Assembly Res. 1710 (XVI), Dec. 19, 1961; text ibid., 1961, pp. 153-156.

gold and foreign exchange reserves have been inadequate to bridge, has had to be filled very largely by capital imports. This in itself cannot provide a complete or permanent solution, and indeed the servicing of external debts and the outgoings on other "invisible" items themselves present severe burdens for developing countries. Moreover, the terms of trade have operated to the disadvantage of the developing countries. In recent years many developing countries have been faced with declining prices for their exports of primary commodities at a time when prices of their imports of manufactured goods, particularly capital equipment, have increased. This, together with the heavy dependence of individual developing countries on primary commodity exports has reduced their capacity to import. Unless these and other unfavourable trends are changed in the near future, the efforts of the developing countries to develop, diversify and industrialize their economies will be seriously hampered.

9. Deeply sensible of the urgency of the problems with which the Conference has dealt, the States participating in this Conference, taking note of the recommendations of the Conference, are determined to do their utmost to lay the foundations of a better world economic order.

SECTION II. CONSTITUTION AND PROCEEDINGS

10. When, in the third week of December 1961, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated the current decade as "the United Nations Development Decade", it also asked the Secretary-General to consult members on the advisability of convening an international conference on international trade problems. Both resolutions (1707(XVI) 18 and 1710 (XVI)) sprang from the growing conviction that the economic aims of the Charter would best be furthered by a bold new programme of international economic co-operation; and it was in this conviction that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development had its origin.

19

11. The Cairo Conference on the Problems of Economic Development held in July 1962 issued a Declaration 10 (which was later welcomed by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution 1820 (XVII) 2) strongly recommending the early convening of an international conference on trade and development. The idea of such a Conference having gained ground, the General Assembly of the United Nations endorsed, on 8 December 1962 (resolution 1785 (XVII)), the decision taken in August 1962 by the Economic and Social Council (resolution 917 (XXXIV) ") whereby the Council resolved to convene this Conference and to establish a Preparatory Committee to consider its agenda. The SecretaryGeneral was requested to invite all States Members of the United Nations and members of the specialized agencies and of the International Atomic Energy Agency to take part in the Conference. The deliberation of the Preparatory Committee's three sessions were fruitful: a detailed provisional agenda for the Conference was drawn up, and a report was prepared defining the problems to be examined and suggesting the directions in which possible solutions might be sought. At the Committee's request the secretariats of the United Nations family of organizations prepared many studies of the issues involved. The Secretary-General of the Conference sought the advice of governments and scholars, and prepared his report entitled Towards a New Trade Policy for Devel

18 Cited ibid., p. 153.

22

19 Text ibid., 1962, pp. 158-162.

"Ibid., pp. 175-176.

Text in U.N. ECOSOC Official Records, Thirty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 1 (E/3671), pp. 7–8.

The first session of the Preparatory Committee took place at United Nations Headquarters from 22 January to 5 February 1963; the second was held at the European Office of the United Nations, at Geneva, from 21 May to 29 June 1963; and the third session was at United Nations Headquarters from 3 to 15 February 1964. At its third session, the Committee decided that informal closed meetings should be held prior to the opening of the Conference. These pre-Conference meetings were held in Geneva from 18 to 23 March 1964. [Footnote in source text.]

opment [E/CONF.46/3]. Member States, individually and in groups, also submitted useful proposals and suggestions to the Conference.

12. On 18 July 1963, the Economic and Social Council decided that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development should be held in Geneva, beginning on 23 March 1964 and continuing until 15 June 1964, and approved the provisional agenda drawn up by the Preparatory Committee (Economic and Social Council resolution 963 (XXXVI)). By its resolution of 11 November 1963 the General Assembly (resolution 1897 (XVIII)) noted the work of the Preparatory Committee and of the Secretary-General of the Conference, welcomed the Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries," and invited States to give serious consideration to it. The regional economic commissions and other regional organizations considered questions of trade and development and adopted important resolutions and declarations." Meanwhile, as the practical arrangements for the Conference went forward, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council were the principal forum for debates expressing the high hopes vested by the peoples of the United Nations in the Conference as a potential turning point in international co-operation in the field of trade and development.

28

13. Aware of these high hopes, the representatives of the following one hundred and twenty States gathered in Geneva from 23 March to 16 June 1964 to take part in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Burundi, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Ceylon, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Gabon, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Viet-Nam, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanganyika, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Upper Volta, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zanzibar."

14. The inaugural address was delivered by the President of Switzerland; the Secretary-General of the United Nations also addressed the Conference; and messages of goodwill and good wishes for success were received from numerous

23 Ante, doc., II-29.

Text in U.N. ECOSOC Official Records, Thirty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 1 (E/3816), pp. 5-6.

25 Text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, pp. 148–151. 26 Annexed to Res. 1897 (XVIII). Dec. 11, 1963.

27

See the reports relating to the Brasilia meeting convened by the Economic Commission for Latin America (E/CONF.46/60 and 71) and the Alta Gracia Charter approved by the Special Latin American Coordinating Committee of the Organization of American States (E/CONF.46/100), the resolutions adopted by the Economic Commission for Africa (E/CONF.46/82) and by the Economic and Social Commission of African Unity at Niamey (E/CONF.46/107), the resolution of the Economic Commission for Europe (E/CONF.46/46) and the Teheran resolutions of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (E/CONF.46/87). [Footnote in source text.]

28 Somalia and Western Samoa were invited, but did not attend the Conference. [Footnote in source text.]

On 27 May 1964, as a result of the formation of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the delegations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar were reconstituted as a unified delegation. [Footnote in source text.]

Heads of State.30 After adopting its agenda and electing its officers-a President, twenty-seven Vice-Presidents, and a Rapporteur-the Conference was addressed by its President and heard, over a period of twelve days, an address by its Secretary-General and a series of policy statements by heads of delegations, most of whom were Cabinet ministers, and by representatives of a number of inter-governmental economic organizations." Five Committees of the whole were established for detailed study of the items of the agenda. The General Committee of the Conference comprised the President, the Vice-Presidents, the Rapporteur, and the Chairmen of the five Committees. The Conference also established a Drafting Committee for the Final Act.

15. With a view to reaching agreement on the issues before the Conference, many informal meetings were held and important consultations conducted among groups of delegations. A notable feature of the Conference was the fact that the delegations of the States signatories of the Joint Declaration of the Developing Countries co-ordinated their work with a view to enhancing general cooperation among all delegations.

SECTION III. FINDINGS

The Conference has been guided by the following findings:

16. World trade has expanded substantially in recent years: the value of world exports has more than doubled since 1950. The principal impulse for this growth has been provided by the overall expansion of the world economy, aided by national and international action as well as enormous scientific and technical progress and the social and economic changes in the world.

17. The countries of the world did not share proportionately in this expansion of international trade. While exports of developing countries rose from $19.2 billion to $28.9 billion between 1950 and 1962, that is by 50 per cent, the expansion of exports from these countries proceeded at an appreciably lower rate than that of developed countries. As a result, the share of developing countries in world exports declined steadily from nearly one-third in 1950 to only slightly more than one-fifth in 1962. Concurrently, the developed market economies increased their share from three-fifths to two-thirds, and the centrally planned economies from 8 per cent to 13 per cent. One of the reasons for the decline in the rate of expansion of world exports from 8.4 per cent per annum in the early fifties to rather less than 5 per cent in the early sixties is the inability of the developing countries to attain a higher rate of export expansion.

18. The difficulties experienced by developing countries in increasing the sale of their products at remunerative prices in the markets of most of the highly industrialized countries have placed a limit on the extent to which they can purchase capital goods and machinery from the developed countries, which in turn has contributed to a slower rate of expansion of world trade than would have been the case if the developing countries had been enabled to increase their exports at a faster rate. Further, measures having discriminatory or protectionist effects applied by certain developed countries have hampered the development of the trade of developing countries and of world trade in general.

19. The difficulties of developing countries were aggravated by deterioration in their terms of trade during the period 1950-1962. The slower growth in the quantity of exports of the developing countries and the adverse movement of their terms of trade were largely the reflexion of the present commodity composition of their trade, consisting, as it does, predominantly of the exchange of primary product exports for manufactured imports whose relative positions in world markets have undergone significant changes. World trade in manufactures has been increasing at an annual rate more than twice that of trade in primary products. Factors contributing to the sluggishness of primary product exports include the low response of consumer demand for food to increases in income of consumers in the advanced countries where incomes and food consumption are already high, the widespread use of substitutes and

30

The welcoming addresses and statements are printed in U.N. doc. E/CONF. 46/141, vol. II, pp. 67 ff.; the messages from Heads of State ibid., vol. I, pp. 86 ff.

* Ibid., vol. II, pp. 85 ff.

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