• by Martin Khor
• Wednesday, May 02, 2012
• Inter Press Service

After often bruising negotiations along North-South lines, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has obtained a renewed and broad mandate for its future work, including on global economic issues, writes Martin Khor, executive director of the South Centre in Geneva.

In this analysis, the author writes that the outcome of UNCTAD's ministerial conference, which ended in Doha on Apr. 26, came after a prolonged battle between developing and developed countries. At times it seemed as if the developed countries would succeed in blocking the U.N.'s premier development think tank from continuing its work in some key areas, especially on the global economic crisis, financial issues, macroeconomic policy, and debt.

At the heart of this sea-change is the concern of many developed countries that they are losing ground to several developing countries in economic performance and global influence, and that to check this trend the old contours of international cooperation have to be redrawn. Thus, the North seems to be rethinking whether to continue the practice of providing developing countries with development assistance and trade preferences, acknowledging that developing countries be allowed to take on lesser obligations in agreements on trade or environment in recognition of their lower economic levels.

(*) Martin Khor is the executive director of the South Centre in Geneva (http://www.southcentre.org).

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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