Los desafíos para UNCTAD después de sus primeros 50 años

Por: Laura Jaramillo Echeverri*
Estudiante de Derecho, Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

Siendo el comercio, uno de los principales ejes de la economía, la UNCTAD se creó hace 50 años después de la post-guerra con un paradigma de cooperación internacional, como una Conferencia para ayudar al desarrollo equitativo del comercio internacional y reducir la brecha entre los países industriales y los países en vía de desarrollo, con la necesidad de un pensamiento renovado. 

En sus primeras conferencias, Raúl Prebishch como Secretario General, proponía una agenda con tres ítems principales enfocados, directamente hacia el comercio internacional, acuerdos arancelarios, financiamiento económico, preferencias para el comercio en productos manufacturados y reformas al trasporte marítimo (UNCTAD at 50: IV). 

Esto se propuso como algo novedoso con deseos de ayudar a los países en vía de desarrollo, pero algunos países desarrollados, impidieron que las negociaciones avanzaran, volviendo los primeros años de UNCTAD, ineficaces pues había intereses propios de por medio. Lo que no permitió llegar a acuerdos concretos de una manera rápida; pues el grupo de países desarrollados, en vez de tener una actitud de cooperación, mantenía una actitud de confrontación con el secretariado, lo que produjo choque de ideas. 

Tras estos 50 años, el enfoque de UNCTAD ha cambiado y se ha dedicado principalmente a luchar de la mano de los países en vía de desarrollo a erradicar la pobreza, pero sin dejar de lado el comercio, para lograr una globalización inclusiva. De allí que, hoy en día el portafolio de actividades de UNCTAD se ha vuelto más heterogéneo en termino de actividades de comercio, como análisis financiero, inversión, empresas y tecnología, lo que implica que ya no es una conexión directa con los gobiernos, sino que se abarcan temas diversos. 

Los principales desafíos de UNCTAD hacia el futuro, implican entre otros, el multilateralismo abierto, esto es un tratado que se lanza en una región, para ser extendido hasta que tenga alcance global. El desafío son las políticas de inversión, pues se requiere de un nuevo esfuerzo para racionalizar las inconsistencias y el mal uso de las inversiones a nivel internacional, como hoy en día, no hay un organismo internacional que se ocupe de esta responsabilidad, la UNCTAD tiene una oportunidad abierta para asumir este rol.

El segundo desafío principal, es la estabilidad del sistema financiero; pues la gente piensa que el problema ya fue identificado y por lo tanto solucionado, pero este no es el caso, pues hay herramientas para mitigar el daño, pero no pueden ser aplicados de manera mecánica. 

Finalmente el cyber-crimen, es otro reto que debe afrontar UNCTAD, en lo relacionado a con implicaciones de comercio y desarrollo, como son los fraudes bancarios, robo de identidad, espionaje comercial e industrial, robo de propiedad industrial, dado que esto produce un crecimiento negativo en el comercio internacional.

UNCTAD ha logrado generar una cooperación hacia el desarrollo, pero su principal desafío, es en este momento, es el deber de sobresalir frente a otros organismos internacionales, que pretenden realizar actividades que corresponden a UNCTAD y a la vez lograr unir los grupos de países que decidieron agruparse y actuar por si mismos.

50th Birthday of UNCTAD

By: Verónica Velásquez Zuluaga * (vvelasq5@eafit.edu.co)
Law student at Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

In its half-century, UNCTAD has made a book about its history. As we know, this organ of the UN was created after the Second World War because an international rebuilding in the economy was a necessity, and the spirit that motivated the group that worked at that attempt of changing the world was a sense of devotion which was very enhancing of the quality of relationships and the quality of the work itself, that’s why it builds something, UNCTAD.

For the creation of this organ, they have to perform many meetings to organize and decide how was going to work. At this time, 1964, there were 120 countries that decided to join the organization, then they establish some rules and 3 central elements that Raul Prebisch, the executive secretary at that time, laid out for UNCTAD. There were: general framework for international commodity agreements, new forms of financing – supplementary and the demand for temporary preferences for the industrial exports that developing countries exported to developed country markets.

The Trade and Development Report have maintained a continuing focus on the interaction of the international economic environment with the development prospects of developing countries. Its policies have been implemented by other institutions that want follow the same principles. UNCTAD became a new international order for the economy and trade.

Nowadays, besides others function that UNCTAD has, it is responsible manly for design policies for international trade and development of the economy. In this globalized world where we live, this organ has a very important role in the trade and development: it looks for increasing the opportunities for the developing countries and integrate them to the world trade. UNCTAD has already constructed a new investment policy framework, and its technical assistance capacity is already strong through the Investment Policy Review mechanism. Other international bodies recognize its expertise on investment, trade and development.

Bibliography

Toye, John (2014) Unctad at 50: A Short History. Available online at: http://vi.unctad.org/resources-mainmenu-64/digital-library?i=VI&op=all&q=UNCTAD+at+50%3A+A+short+history&act=search&option=com_gslink

Latin America’s paradox: Development

Opinion Article by: Estefanía Tirado* (etirado2@eafit.edu.co)
*Economics and International Business Student at Universidad EAFIT, Colombia.


For the last couple of decades the world has seen Latin American economies, such as Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Panama and Costa Rica, emerge not only trough a major involvement in global trade, but also in the establishment of a national industry, what under a superficial judgment would be considered as an increase on the entire population’s welfare. 

Despite the rapid economic growth, about 80 million people are still living in extreme poverty - half of them in Brazil and Mexico - while a further 40% are at risk of returning to poverty in the event of an economic crisis or because of the effects of climate change in the region (World Bank, 2013). Taking this into account, there is clear evidence that development has not been inclusive and there is a huge portion of the population that does not perceive the benefits of the modern and global economy. 

One of the main causes of this trend of exclusive development has been the extremely low rate of capital accumulation and productivity that has characterized most of the countries in the region. The low rate of accumulation is explained by the misallocation of the resources gained by the growth countries have had until now. There has been a huge portion of these gains directed to consumption, what has made productivity to suffer, employment to decline, and moreover has not strengthened the industrial capacity of the economies. 

In order to recover the rate of capital accumulation and therefore generate a future economic growth that would actually benefit a large portion of society, as more jobs and technology would be available, it is necessary to reduce the rate of consumption, and although making this reduction is the most feasible solution, as it involves no debt, carrying it out has huge social and political challenges. In a context of such a great level of inequality it would be very hard to determine which social groups will have to participate more intensely, and as in Latin American democracies private interests have great influence on political decisions, and applying the policy to the most marginalized portion of society would elevate even more the difference in life quality, there is a conflict of interests goverments have to face and overcome by thinking what would generate the most welfare for the entire society. 

To sum up, it is time for Latin American countries to start thinking about the future and tackle long-term challenges to overcome the paradox and make development a positive process for the entire population. 

References

World Bank (2013). Cae la desigualdad en América Latina, aunque persisten desafíos para lograr una prosperidad compartida. Available online at:  http://www.bancomundial.org/es/news/feature/2013/06/14/latin-america-inequality-shared-prosperity

Prebisch, Raul(1981). Raul Prebisch on Latin American Development. Available online at:http://www.jstor.org/stable/1972587 .

International Institutions in a structural crisis

Opinion article by: Carolina Herrera Cano* (caroherca@gmail.com)
International Business student at Universidad EAFIT

The development concept is one that has drastically changed through the years, different social movements and regulations have shaped its meaning and the way in which governments act in its favor. Raúl Prebisch, founder Secretary General to the UNCTAD defined a structural crisis the global economy was facing in 1981 as a result from the accelerated growth in production that created inequality, poverty, and pollution (Prebisch, 1981). The political and economic scenario has changed since the Cold War period, as the bipolar balance of power was reconsidered, but even if some of the development dynamics remain: the disadvantaged conditions of developing countries (what he calls periphery), and its contrast with the levels of consumption in developed nations suggests the existence of a structural crisis, the emergence of some international actors that are modifying how the global system functions is undeniable.

The context of the 2008 Great Recession is an evidence of this structural problem, the market imperfections that created the financial and economic crisis were described by Prebisch about twenty years before the depression: “Two centuries of belief in the regulatory virtues of the forces of the market have caused us to lose sight of the ethics of development...” (Prebisch, 1981, 568). But as it was mentioned before, there are some actors that have become more important no matter the system stagnation. This is the case of the international institutions that respond to the need of collective decision construction at the national and international levels, also proposed by Raúl Prebisch (Prebisch, 1981).

The emergence of international organisms has created an institutional framework legitimated by different countries because of its capacity for action. The role of the WTO (founded in 1995) is an evidence of this trend, in its Report of the Panel on Defining the Future of Trade convened by Pascal Lamy, Director-General, it is highlighted “the role of trade in contributing to sustainable development, growth, jobs and poverty alleviation”(WTO, 2013). And it also agrees with Prebisch’s proposal: “the challenge is to construct coherent national and international policy frameworks that deliver inclusive growth” (Prebisch, 1981).

At a national level, Colombian government has lately organized its development agenda in an international basis. Last month the OECD Council accepted the roadmap for the accession of Colombia to the OECD Convention; this organism promotes good practices towards a better society, and has evaluated Colombia in areas of health, education, environment, trade, investment and fight against corruption (Correa C, 2013). This is a great possibility for Colombia to be part of those international actors that seek a better global system. Despite the criticism about the actual effectiveness of these organisms, it is important to highlight the increasing power they are gaining in the global context, the gap between developed and developing countries is truly a structural problem, but a joint development agenda is an effort to increase possibilities for the least developed nations.

References

Correa C, J. (2013). En un mes comienza la adhesión de Colombia a Ocde. Available in: http://www.portafolio.co/economia/adhesion-colombia-la-ocde. [October 10th, 2013].

Presbisch, R. (1981). Raúl Presbisch on Latin American development. On Population and Development Review, 7, 3, 563-568.

World Trade Organization. (2013). The future of trade: The Challenges of Convergence, Report of the Panel on Defining the Future of Trade. Geneva: OMC.