UNCTAD IV (Hansard, 14 June 1976)

§ 33. Mr. Molloy
asked the Minister for Overseas Development if he will make a statement on the outcome of the UNCTAD Conference as it affects overseas aid.

§ 38. Mr. Hooley
asked the Minister for Overseas Development if he will make 21 a statement on the outcome of UNCTAD IV so far as it affects the responsibilities of his Department.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Overseas Development (Mr. Frank Judd)
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade has already made a statement to the House on the outcome of UNCTAD IV. On debt, within the aid context, we are pledged like other donor countries to respond quickly and constructively to individual requests made to us for help within the relevant consortia and consultative groups. On the other main policy issues concerning aid, the time and detailed discussion needed to reach agreement led the conference to pass on the respective proposals of the developing and developed countries to the next meeting of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board for discussion in September.

§ Mr. Molloy
Is my hon. Friend aware that the statement to which he referred was not exactly rapturously accepted by the House, in so far as some of the trade elements in that statement had Community and common fund features? What are the development implications in policy and practical terms of helping the poorest nations?

§ Mr. Judd
Our strategy is now concentrated on aid to the poorest countries and the poorest people within them. It was precisely because of our misgivings about how far a common fund might assist in the transfer of resources to the poorest that we had certain reservations in this respect.

§ Mr. Tugendhat
Is the Minister aware that disappointment with the results of the UNCTAD conference are not confined to his side of the House but were strongly voiced from this side as well, and that we expect a debate on the matter at the earliest possible opportunity?

§ Mr. Judd
My right hon. Friend dealt with that after his statement last week. Having been present for the last nine days at the conference, I do not share that sense of disappointment. Those who feel that we should have proceeded to the establishment of a common fund should note that, notwithstanding the reservations honestly expressed by the British Government, we have now stated that we shall go into preparatory talks 22 with good will, and our ultimate position will be related to what comes out of those talks.

§ Mr. Hooley
Does the Minister agree that the question of commodities and the stabilisation of commodity markets is of fundamental importance to the Third World as a whole and to the poorest countries? Will the Government from now on align themselves with the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries rather than trail miserably behind the reactionary attitudes of Western Germany and the United States?

§ Mr. Judd
I am sure that my hon. Friend, who has an unrivalled concern for the interests of the Third World, will agree that, above all, we must ensure that the ultimate arrangements reached in stabilising the commodity trade are genuinely in the interests of the poorest countries. Up to now, that has been far from certain. We are determined to make progress in that direction.