POLITICS-US/UN: Holbrooke Gets High-Fives For Dues Reductions

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 10 2001 (IPS) - Washington’s outgoing ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, received a series of verbal high-fives from senators here Tuesday after reporting his success last month in forging a deal that reduces US assessments to the UN’s regular budget and peace-keeping operations.

Particularly welcome were the congratulations of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Jesse Helms, a long-time foe of the world body and the main force behind the Congressional effort to reduce US dues to the United Nations.

“We are grateful to you,” said Helms during a committee hearing. “When this deal is fully implemented, it will knock at least 170 million dollars off the amounts that the United Nations bills the American taxpayer.”

“More than that, through this debate we have forced the United Nations to make much-needed reforms, and we have protected the American taxpayer from unknown increases that might have happened and have contemplated by the United States and its supporters,” said Helms.

He added that he was prepared to free up some 585 million dollars of a total of some 900 million dollars in US arrears to the world body under a law passed by Congress four years ago. The so-called Helms-Biden law provided that the money could be released in stages only as the United Nations implemented sweeping budgetary and administrative reforms, including a reductions in the US dues.

“On the basis of what was achieved,” said Helms, “I am prepared to support a technical change to that law to permit the so-called ‘Year Two’ payment, 585 million dollars, to be released.”

Tuesday’s hearings were held more than two weeks after the UN General Assembly endorsed the deal on dues reduction, which will also require a number of countries, including Singapore, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, China, and several Arab Gulf states, among others, to increase their own financial support.

The hearings were also held on the eve of key confirmation hearings for two top foreign-policy officials under the incoming administration of President-elect George W. Bush. Both Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell and Defence Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld are expected to be asked to give their own views about future US relations with the United Nations during the hearings.

Beyond expressing support for Helms’ positions on the world body and a great reluctance to involve US troops in any peacekeeping operations, Bush himself spoke very little about these questions during the presidential campaign.

The assumption here is that the new administration will offer strong support for the deal, particularly now that Helms has given his endorsement. Powell was himself briefed on it by Holbrooke who later told reporters that the retired general was “very understanding of it. He has said that he hoped the issue would be resolved as quickly as possible”.

The deal approved by the General Assembly affects both the assessments made by countries to the UN’s general budget and to its peace-keeping operations (PKOs).

After the creation of the United Nations in the closing days of the Second World War, the United States paid about 39 percent of the world body’s regular budget, a share which was gradually reduced over a decade to 33 percent. In 1972, the US share was reduced again to 25 percent. Under the Helms-Biden legislation, Washington demanded that its share of the regular budget be further reduced to 22 percent.

Under the deal worked out by Holbrooke, the General Assembly agreed to Helms’ demands. A key component of the deal will be a one-time contribution of 34 million dollars by Cable News Network founder and international philanthropist Ted Turner into a special fund that will be used by the US State Department to help finance the transition to the lower assessment.

The US share of PKO costs has been about 30.4 percent since 1973, but Congress, to the distress and anger of some of Washington’s closest allies, decided in 1995 to unilaterally cut its contribution to 25 percent. Helms-Biden demanded that the UN accept that reduction as a condition for receiving the money that has been withheld.

In this case, however, Helms did not get all he wanted. Instead the General Assembly adopted a formula whereby the US PKO assessment will fall gradually from about 28 percent for the first half of 2001, to a little over 25 percent by 2004.

To make up the difference, some 29 countries accepted increases – ranging from 50 percent to 500 percent – in their own PKO assessments, according to Holbrooke. Although PKO assessments vary from year to year, Washington will likely save over 100 million dollars this year, an amount that will likely rise to 170 million dollars over the next two years, he said.

A key source of the savings could be Switzerland which reportedly intends to join the UN next year. If it does, it will pick up one percent of PKO costs, according to Holbrooke, of which 0.6 percent will help compensate for Washington’s reduction.

A key unanswered question is whether Washington will pay the difference between the 25 percent in PKO costs which it has been paying and the higher percentages which will be assessed it over the next four years. Under current US law, the president can pay no more than 25 percent of total PKO costs.

Holbrooke called on Congress to lift the 25 percent cap in order to pay the difference. “It is my considered view that you should re-examine that cap,” he said. “With all due respect, you have achieved your goal by putting it down, and I do not believe that the US national interest is served by leaving it on and letting the arrearages begin to accrue again. The 25 percent was a symbol to the UN that we didn’t like the waste and sloppiness, but it was also, to a certain extent, an arbitrary number.”

He was supported by Republican Sen. Richard Lugar who asked Helms to consider sponsoring an amendment to lift the cap. “I think failure to do that is really to court a lot of difficulty which is unnecessary,” said Lugar.

But Helms himself was non-committal, suggesting that the new administration and the Congress will have to take it up.

At the same time, Holbrooke stressed that Washington will not consider paying any of the arrears – which make up the bulk of the 1.4 billion dollars the UN says the United States owes it – it has accumulated since Congress imposed the 25 percent cap.