DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-CUBA: Castro Proposes New Strategy for Developing World

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 23 1998 (IPS) - Cuba’s President Fidel Castro proposed a strategy for the developing nations act together in the multilateral trade negotiations making use of the support of “reponsible statesmen” in the countries of the North.

Castro stressed the importance of the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has traditinlly been presented as one of the main causes of the worsening of world poverty by left-wing and nationalist forces.

The Cuban leader called on the developing countries to act jointly in the multilateral trade negotiations converting the WTO into “an instrument of the struggle for a more just and better world.”

“No nation, big or small, can be left out of this important institution, and its admission cannot be subjected to humilliating conditions,” said Castro.

In his speech to the ministerial conference for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the multilateral system Tuesday, Castro criticised the absence of China and Russia from its ranks, mentioning the obstacles put in the way of their membership.

“The developing countries must fend off divisions. Those of us who were colonies yesterday and are still today enduring the consequences of backwardness, poverty and underdevelopment, we are the majority in this organisation,” he said.

The strategy proposed to the developing countries by Castro included a call to count on those “responsible statesmen, who can undoubtedly be found in many developed countries.”

His call arrived just as the developing countries are preparing for a fresh round of trade negotiation to be outlined by the end of the year in special sessions of the WTO General Council.

The programme of future WTO negotiations will be proposed to the General Council by the present ministerial conference, in the final declaration to be approved Wednesday.

Castro said the new issues introduced in the WTO agenda by the wealthy countries threaten a reduction of the developing countries’ competitive possibilities in the midst of already difficult conditions fraught with inequalities.

In his speech, Castro criticised “the economic war” declared on his nation by the United States, especially the Helms-Burton law, which punishes entrepreneurs from third countries working with nationalised assets in Cuba.

He said the “disgraceful” Helms-Burton law “has not been amended at all” criticising the agreement established this weekend by authorities from the United States and European Union on the extraterritorial reach of these regulations.

Later on in the same conference, Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair, mentioned the agreement reached during the summit between the United States and the European Union in London Monday.

“The two parties,” said Blair, “managed to reduce obstacles to trade between the United States and the European Union finding an effective way to deal with US sanctions on our trade with Cuba, Libya and Iran.”

Blair announced hat Britain would be setting aside 10 million dollars for technical assistance to the less developed countries, allowing them to help prepare for liberalistion over this year and the next under the auspices of the WTO.

South African president, Nelson Mandela, said the question of free market access for the least developed nations should no longer be discussed.

The multilateral system must incorporate the practical effects of implementing this liberalisation of markets, said Mandela, stating that the WTO will fail if it is used to defend the current patterns of production.