Assembly acts on key issues related to trade, food, housing and other development matters.

• Position: United Nations General Assembly

Key issues in the areas of trade, economic co-operation, special economic assistance, food and disaster relief were acted on by the forty-first General Assembly on the recommendation of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial). Texts on a broad range of other development issues of wide international concern, including energy, housing and the environment, were also approved.

The Assembly declared 1988-1997 as the World Decade for Cultural Development, called for further efforts towards convening an international conference on money and finance, and appealed for "significant measures" by Member States in connection with the 1987 observance of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless.

Action to alleviate Africa's continuing continent-wide economic crisis, aggravated by the locust/grasshopper infestation in 1986, was also recommended. Plans were made final to convene the seventh session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD VII) at Geneva from 9 to 31 July 1987.

The Second Committee's work during the 1986 session reflected a marked effort at conciliation, with fewer resolutions put forward and more approved without a vote. One of the most notable examples was a consensus text setting out a variety of co-operative and complementary approaches for addressing the grave problem of third-world external debt (see story, p.109).

Another laudable achievement, according to Second Committee Chairman Abdalla Saleh Al-Ashtal (Democratic Yemen), was an omnibus resolution on food production.

In other instances, however, the breakdown of consensus, particularly on special economic assistance, was of concern to a number of Committee members.

One of the most controversial resolutions was one containing a call for revocation of the United States' trade embargo against Nicaragua. Some delegations which agreed with the text in substance suggested, however, that it might have been more appropriate to consider the question under the plenary item on the situation in Central America.

In all, the Second Committee held 36 meetings, sending 36 draft resolutions and 23 draft decisions to the General Assembly for action.

Except where indicated, the Assembly approved the texts without a vote.

Trade and development

The increasing importance attached to trade issues was reflected in a number of resolutions adopted by the Assembly on the Second Committee's recommendation.

In resolution 41/164, adopted by 83 to 2 (Israel, United States), with 44 abstentions, the Assembly deplored the continuation of the trade embargo against Nicaragua in contravention of resolution 40/188, which contained a call for its immediate revocation, and the June 1986 judgment of the International Court of Justice, which considered the embargo a breach of international law by the United States. The Assembly again requested that the embargo be immediately revoked, and invited Member States to promote concrete forms of co-operation in Central America to help reduce the negative effects of the trade ban.

The resolution was called a "direct attack on the United States" by Vernon A. Walters (United States), who told the Assembly on 5 December that the text completely overlooked the reasons for the embargo. By ignoring Nicaragua's violations of human rights and civil liberties and by refusing to consider its interference in the internal affairs of neighbouring States, the resolution failed to give full and fair consideration of the issues involved, Mr. Walters said. Calling the resolution "hypocritical". he observed that Nicaragua and two other sponsors of the resolution, Algeria and Democratic Yemen, maintained trade embargoes as part of their current policies and that the other co-sponsors - Congo, Mexico, Peru, and Zimbabwe - actively advocated them.

The United States, he went on, had not participated in the vote on the text in the Second Committee on 21 November and had withdrawn from any further consideration of the issue to express its displeasure with the procedures used by the co-sponsors to deny the United States the right to a fair hearing on matters it considered vital to balanced consideration of the text.

During Committee consideration of the draft, the United States had submitted four amendments (A/C.2/41/L.43) that would have had the Assembly recall its encouragement of the Contadora peace effort in Central America; reaffirm countries' rights to choose their own trading policies and partners: express concern over civil liberties violations in Nicaragua; and note that replies of only 13 countries were included in the Secretary-General's report on the trade embargo against Nicaragua (A/41/596 and Adds.1 and 2). The amendments were withdrawn after sub-amendments were proposed by five other delegations - Peru, Federal Republic of Germany, Mexico, Canada and Ghana. A number of speakers expressed concern to the Assembly that the United States amendments had not been given a full and fair hearing by the Committee.

Julio Icaza-Gallard (Nicaragua) said, however, that the United States had done everything possible to prevent the Assembly from expressing an opinion on its illegal actions against Nicaragua, including trying to keep the issue out of the Second Committee and submitting many amendments to distort the nature of the original draft. The resolution was based on the basic international laws of the non-use of force, non-interference in States' internal affairs, and respect for legal order, he emphasized.

Nicaragua had reported to the Secretary-General (A/41/596/Add.2) that the cutting off of the North American market had affected 14.9 per cent of its trade with the rest of the world and resulted in damages to the Nicaraguan economy estimated at $93.3 million.

In a text on economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries, the Assembly, deploring the fact that some developed countries continued to apply, and in some cases had increased in scope and magnitude, coercive economic measures against developing countries, called on the international community to adopt urgent and effective measures to eliminate such practices 41/165).

By a vote of 115 in favour to 23 against, with 3 abstentions (the Gambia, Greece and Turkey), the Assembly reaffirmed that developed countries should refrain from threatening or applying trade restrictions, blockades, embargoes and other economic sanctions incompatible with the provisions of the Charter. The Secretary-General was asked to prepare for the 1987 Assembly a comprehensive report on effective means to eliminate the use of coercive practices.

The text, sponsored by the Group of 77 developing countries, was adopted by the Second Committee on 4 November after two amendments proposed by Israel were rejected. The first would have deleted the word "developed" from the phrase deploring the fact that some developed countries continued to apply coercive measures; the other would have amended the call to developed countries to refrain from threatening or applying trade restrictions to read "all countries". Canada, Israel and the United States voted in favour of both amendments, which were rejected, respectively, by votes of 106 to 3, with 27 abstentions, and 104 to 3 with 29 abstentions.

In action to support island developing countries, the Assembly called on all States, international organizations and financial institutions to respond positively to their special needs, and to intensify efforts to implement specific actions in their favour (41/163). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was asked to continue its in-depth studies of the common problems of those economies and, in its role as a focal point for global action in favour of island developing countries, to facilitate the cross-regional exchange of information and experience. The Secretary-General was asked to prepare for the 1988 Assembly specific recommendations regarding island developing economies.

With the goal of reaching agreement on outstanding issues relating to the drafting of an International Code of Conduct on the Transfer of Technology, the Assembly invited the Secretary-General of UNCTAD and the President of the United Nations Conference on the Code of Conduct to finalize in 1987 consultations with regional groups and interested Governments aimed at identifying appropriate solutions to outstanding issues in the draft code (41/166). The UNCTAD Secretary-General was asked to report on the consultations to the 1987 Assembly, which would then decide on further action, including the possibility of reconvening the Conference on the code in 1988.

According to the UNCTAD Secretary-General (A/41/715), some Governments had expressed doubts about the advisability of convening another session of the Conference without first arriving at some sort of general understanding among the regional groups on the basic elements of a compromise solution to the outstanding issues, while others believed that "in view of the dynamics of negotiations" matters still outstanding in the draft code could be resolved at a resumed Conference.

The Assembly decided to convene the seventh session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD VII) at Geneva 8-31 July 1987, and asked the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board to undertake the necessary intergovernmental preparations (41/166). UNCTAD members were asked to intensify preparations for UNCTAD VII with a view to making a "significant contribution to multilateral action for the revitalization of development, growth and international trade".

States were urged to make the maximum effort to achieve positive results at UNCTAD VII in solving short- and long-term commodity problems, particularly those adversely affecting the economies of developing countries (41/168).

Another text on commodities, which had been forwarded to the 1986 session in 1985, was deferred to the 1987 Assembly session (decision 41/436). By...