9:08 AM Jul 1, 1996

RICUPERO WELCOMES G7 SUPPORT TO UNCTAD

Geneva 1 July (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- UNCTAD Secretary-General, Rubens Ricupero, welcomed Monday the outcome of the Summit of the Group of Seven at Lyon, France, last week, and their explicit support for UNCTAD and its future work, as well as the implicit way several of UNCTAD's views have been incorporated into the final communique.

Ricupero, who accompanied the UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the Lyon G-7 summit, and participated in the inter-agency discussions (with the IMF, World Bank, WTO and OECD heads) on development, said the final communique had a positive view on UNCTAD.

This he said was particularly important since not too long ago, just a year ago at the G-7 summit, UNCTAD's future had been put so much in doubt.

The document out of the G-7 reflected very much the thinking and views that UNCTAD had been promoting including on debt, as well as the restructuring agreed upon at Midrand.

At the 9 July executive session of UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board, Ricupero added, he hoped decisions would be taken on the constitution of the three commissions under the TDB, and the priority subjects (two each) that the Commissions are to consider.

On the priorities set by the G-7 for the Singapore Ministerial meeting of the WTO, Ricupero noted that it necessarily reflected the viewpoints of the G-7 countries. UNCTAD, he said, was working on the issues of trade and investment and he hoped that the 9 July executive session of the TDB agreement would be reached for a high-level segment of the Board this October to be devoted on investment and a possible multilateral framework. On this last, he said work on UNCTAD's basic documentation was very much advanced and it would address all concerns raised on negotiations for a possible framework of a multilateral investment agreement, both from the legal and development perspectives. he legal and development perspectives.

Competition policy, he said, would be one of the subjects proposed for one of the Commissions of the Board. On competition policy, UNCTAD had the expertise and comparative advantage, having been working on this for over two decades, including in administering the Restrictive Business Practices code.

On the G-7 talk of tariff initiatives at Singapore (where the G7 have proposed speeding tariff cuts on some industrial products), Ricupero referred to his own presentation at the ECOSOC last week, where he had stressed the need to take up the unfinished agenda of the Uruguay Round, and the earlier Tokyo Rounds, and address problems of tariff escalation, tariff peaks, as well as speeding up the liberalisation of the textiles and agricultural sectors.

When reminded that the G-7 had not addressed these issues -- but rather had made clear that the time-frames for implementation in the WTO accords should be adhered to strictly, implying nothing on textiles and clothing till end 2005, and nothing in agriculture till 2001 -- Ricupero remarked that the G7 had presented the view of a particular group of countries. It was for the developing countries to put forward their own agenda. And a final decision would be possible only on the basis of a compromise reflecting these two views.