PRESS CONFERENCE BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

Julian Hunte (Saint Lucia), President of the General Assembly, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today that developing countries were bringing pressure to bear on the United States and the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to do something about subsidies and pricing that would have a positive impact on commodities trading.

As part of his assessment of the ongoing High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development being held at Headquarters the past two days, Mr Hunte said clearly what was going on with regard to commodity prices could not be allowed to continue.  On the one hand, the official development assistance (ODA) of 0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) was not being fulfilled, and a number of developing countries, including his own, preferred a system where there was trade, rather than aid.  In his country, the main crop, bananas, had experienced drastic price fluctuations, and he felt that the current system did not make sense, as it neither encouraged farmers nor allowed for proper budgeting, among a host of other problems.

Additionally, he added, commodities had to be tied into the question of subsidies.  And that the issue could only be redressed when the subsidies issue between the European Union and the United States, in particular, were dealt with in a meaningful way, which allowed those matters to “see the light of day”.

Debt, he said, remained a serious problem, and although there was much hope for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative, it did not seem to be working all that well and continued to cause difficulties.  In that regard, he hoped that during his term as President, coupled with the ongoing discussions on the matter, he would be pushing particularly not only the Second Committee, but perhaps on the plenary, as well, to discuss those matters in a meaningful way and arrive at some determination.  “They cannot be left hanging from year to year; in other words, while the grass is growing the horse is starving”, he said.

Asked what kind of solutions, if any, had been discussed with the OECD countries and the United States now that the problem had been identified, Mr. Hunte replied that he principally wanted to see something done about the subsidies issue, which he said was at the heart of the problem.  He believed the developing countries were bringing a lot of pressure, and the failure of the Cancun meeting demonstrated that people were just not prepared to discuss new issues unless some of those issues, particularly concerning agriculture, were in fact discussed.

Viewed from that perspective, he continued, the ongoing meeting, in fact, put further pressure on the United States and Europe to do something about subsidies that would have a positive effect on matters pertaining to commodities.  Further, something positive had to be done about debt, because the mechanism now in place was not working.  Submissions made to the Assembly earlier by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and others bore testimony to that.

Financing for development was extremely important to the process and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.  That was why all the Bretton Woods institutions, including the World Bank and the IMF had come together to see how they could better ensure that the Goals were achieved, particularly the question of reducing poverty by 2015.  While that was not going to be an easy task, he thought the High-level Dialogue should be seen as a demonstration of good faith.  He felt encouraged that a few of his own concerns had also been looked into, including matters related to commodities trading and price fluctuations so severe that it made it difficult, particularly for developing countries, to survive.

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