The Trilateral Commission (© 1974)
Richard N. Gardner, Saburo Okita, and B.J. Udink
ISBN: 0-930503-56-2
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Summary of the Report
A Turning Point in North-South Economic Relations
Text of Summary of the Report
The time has come for new policies and new actions by the governments of the Trilateral region in their relations with developing countries. There is a crisis in North-South relations that requires two kinds of responses from the Trilateral governments:
First, there is need for a general restructuring of North-South economic relations for the purpose of creating a more just and workable world economic order. Such a new economic order should include, among other things, greater attention by both developed and developing countries to their growing interdependence, greater respect for the equal rights of all members of the world community under international law, the abolition of "spheres of influence," greater recognition of the differing needs and capabilities of different developing countries, the pursuit of cooperation rather than confrontation, the focusing of development efforts on the poorest segment of populations in developing countries, new rules and arrangements governing access to supplies as well as access to markets, and a restructuring of international economic institutions in the light of new political and economic realities. We propose to deal with the extremely complex questions involved in this restructuring in a later report to be issued early in 1975.
Second, there is need to deal with the desperate plight of nearly one
billion people in some 30 resource-poor developing countries whose governments
cannot pay the increased bills for oil, food, fertilizer and other products.
At least $3 billion in extra concessional aid must be found for these countries
in 1974-75 to avoid economic disaster. This situation calls for an extraordinary
act of cooperation between the countries of the Trilateral region and the
oil exporting countries of OPEC. The former bear a special responsibility
because they have a vastly greater total national income and the latter
bear a special responsibility because of the dramatic increase in their
export earnings and therefore in their capacity to invest sums abroad. We
believe it would be reasonable for the Trilateral world as a whole to provide
about $1.5 billion of this total, with the OPEC countries providing the
other $1.5 billion. In response to the appeal of the Secretary-General of
the United Nations, contributions to this special emergency effort could
be made through bilateral or multilateral channels and could take the form
of cash, concessional sales of food, fertilizer and oil, and the cancellation
or postponement of debt repayment. The Soviet Union should be invited to
participate in this emergency assistance effort in the light of its considerable
economic capabilities and the fact that it has benefited on the whole from
the recent increase in raw material prices.
Rapporteurs
(titles at time of publication)
Richard N. Gardner, Professor of Law and International Organization,
Columbia University, New York.
Saburo Okita, President, Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, Tokyo.
B.J. Udink, Former Minister for Aid to Developing Countries, The
Netherlands.
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