Trade relations between the Atlantic area and other parts of the world

Recommendation 346 (1963)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 15th January 1963 (20th Sitting) (see Doc. 1536, report of the Economic Committee). Text adopted by the Assembly on 15th January 1963 (20th Sitting).

The Assembly,

Recalling its two earlier Recommendations on Atlantic economic problems;

Believing that the Atlantic partnership proposed by President Kennedy must be developed in full recognition of the responsibilities which the industrial countries carry for the economic progress of the less developed regions;

Noting that the trade of the less developed regions has in the last decade expanded at a slower pace than world trade and far slower than Atlantic and intra-European trade, reflecting the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth between the developed and the less developed countries;

Noting that this trend has been accompanied by falling prices for primary commodities and rising prices for industrial products resulting in a serious deterioriation of the terms of trade of the less developed regions;

Noting that the imports of the less developed countries most severely affected by these developments are capital goods vital to their productive capacity and that erratic price fluctuations on commodity markets further complicate the execution of their development plans;

Drawing attention to the fact that the less developed countries must, over the next decade or decades, increase their imports of manufactures far more rapidly than they can hope to increase their traditional primary exports, if their national income and per capita income is to rise at reasonable rates;

Considering that, while the increasing amounts of financial assistance provided by the industrial countries through loans and grants have played a vital role in supplementing the export proceeds of the less developed countries, and should be raised considerably and more effectively co-ordinated, such assistance is not an aim in itself but it should be accompanied by and lead to increasing exports from these countries;

Believing, therefore, that it is indispensable that the Atlantic nations revise their present trade policies with a view to expanding the outlets of their markets for the exports of the less developed countries, in the first place for the materials and simple manufactures they now produce and progressively for a wider range of processed goods and industrial products;

Welcoming the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962 as a bold new departure to attune Atlantic trade policies to the needs of our time,

Recommends that member Governments should :

concert their policies with those of their North American partners in OECD with a view to elaborating a coherent and effective programme of trade development for the less developed regions, to be implemented in cooperation with all countries concerned within GATT and the competent United Nations bodies, and, with this object, more particularly to :

1 facilitate the entry into their markets of primary commodities and tropical products by reducing or eliminating duties, reducing or abolishing quantitative restrictions and other regulations affecting imports, wherever feasible on a non-discriminatory basis, and to encourage the consumption of these products by substantially reducing fiscal and other internal charges and taxes to which many of them are subjectedn;

1.1 reduce the differential between the duties on raw materials and the processed goods produced therefrom, wherever this differential has the effect of impeding the imports of processed goods from the less developed countries;

1.2 reduce existing tariffs and quantitative restrictions on imports of simply-manufactured goods necessitating intensive labour which the less developed countries are already producing efficiently, and progressively open their markets wider to imports of light engineering goods, chemicals and pharmaceutical products from these countries;

1.3 reconsider seriously and as a matter of urgency the aims of their agricultural policies with a view to expanding international trade in temperate agricultural goods on a sound economic basis, taking into account security needs and the need of increasing food aid on a grant basis without interfering with commercial trade;

1.4 assist the less developed countries in expanding their own markets and their trade with one another, wherever appropriate on a regional basis, and to improve their sales promotion policies;

2. co-ordinate closely their trade policies with their programmes of financial assistance, which must be continued on a growing scale, as well as with their technical assistance programmes which should be increasingly concentrated on helping these countries to elaborate and implement their development plans in co-operation with one another;

3. take measures to enable them to give adequate temporary adjustment assistance to their own industries and working people who may encounter difficulties or hardship as a result of the expansion of imports from the less developed countries;

4. keep the Assembly informed of measures taken and consult it on plans and programmes under discussion.