Among Six Draft Texts Approved, Second Committee Resolution Highlights Lack of Progress in Doha, with Calls for Political Will to Break Impasse

By the terms of one of six draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved this afternoon, the General Assembly would express serious concern at the lack of progress in the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations and would reiterate the call for the necessary flexibility and political will needed to break the current impasse in the negotiations.

By the text of a draft titled “International financial system and development” under the agenda item of macroeconomic policy questions, the Assembly would call for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and development-oriented outcome of the Doha Development Agenda multilateral trade negotiations.

Another draft, entitled “Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017),” would have the Assembly call upon the international community to urgently take measures to address the root causes of extreme poverty and hunger because of their negative impacts on sustainable development.

The Assembly would reaffirm, by the terms of another text titled “Agriculture development, food security and nutrition” the commitment to making every effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  It would also have that body do so in support of developing countries, in particular those countries that were lagging most behind and those Goals where progress was most off track, thus improving the lives of the poorest people.

Under the globalization and interdependence cluster, the Committee approved a draft titled “Promoting and fostering the efficiency, accountability, effectiveness and transparency of public administration by strengthening supreme audit institutions.”  By its terms, the Assembly would encourage Member States to give due consideration to the independence and capacity-building of supreme audit institutions in a manner consistent with their national institutional structures, as well as to the improvement of public accounting systems in accordance with national development plans in the context of the post-2015 development agenda.

Under the same agenda item, the Committee approved a draft, “Culture and sustainable development”.  That text would have the Assembly encourage all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders to continue to give due consideration to culture and sustainable development in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda.

Next, the Committee approved a draft entitled “Role of transport and transit corridors in ensuring international cooperation for sustainable development”.  By that text, the Assembly would call for efforts to promote regional economic integration and cooperation, including by improving cross-border transportation infrastructure, enhancing regional connectivity and facilitating regional trade and investment.

On the agenda item of programme planning, the Chair said that there were no matters requiring the Committee’s attention and that the body would keep the matter open.

The Chair informed the Committee that since it needed time beyond its scheduled 26 November closing for consultations on outstanding items, he had requested and gained permission from the President of the General Assembly for a one-time extension until 5 December for final action.

Speaking today were the representatives of Austria, Australia, Dominican Republic, Ireland, Morocco, Nicaragua and Turkmenistan.

The Committee will meet again at a date to be announced later.

Background

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met this afternoon to continue its action on outstanding draft texts, as well as to address programme planning.

Action on draft resolution

A draft text titled “Promoting and fostering the efficiency, accountability, effectiveness and transparency of public administration by strengthening supreme audit institutions” (document A/C.2/69/L.25/Rev.1) was introduced by the representative of Austria.  The text was approved without a vote.

On macroeconomic policy questions, the Committee took up a draft titled “International trade and development” (document A/C.2/69/L.52).

Speaking before the action, the representative of Australia made a brief statement.

The Committee approved the text without a vote, withdrawing the previous version contained in document A/C.2/69/L.28.

Speaking after the action, the representative of Morocco made a brief statement, thanking the Committee.

The Committee then made an oral decision to take note of the Report by the Secretary-General on International trade and development (document A/69/179) and the Report of the Trade and Development Board on its 2013-2014 sessions (document A/69/15).

The Committee then took up the text “International financial system and development” (document A/C.2/69/L.48).  Action on the text was postponed to allow time for the correct version of the draft to be issued.In the sustainable development cluster, the Committee took up a text titled “Role of transport and transit corridors in ensuring international cooperation for sustainable development” (document A/C.2/69/L.13/Rev.1).

The representative of Turkmenistan said the draft provided major support for establishing an international transport agenda, noting that the draft raised the issue of international cooperation.

The text was then approved without a vote.

Turning to globalization and interdependence, the Committee took up a draft titled “Culture and sustainable development” (document A/C.2/69/L.47).

The representative of Morocco made a brief statement.

The Committee then approved the draft, withdrawing the previous version contained in document A/C.2/69/L.27.

Taking up eradication of poverty and other development issues, the Committee considered a text titled “Second United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (2008-2017)” (document A/C.2/69/L.50).

The representative of Ireland made a brief statement.

The Committee then approved the draft, withdrawing the previous version contained in document A/C.2/69/L.5.

The Committee also took up a draft titled “Agriculture development, food security and nutrition” (document A/C.2/69/L.49) and the representative of the Dominican Republic and the representative of Morocco made brief statements.

The text was then approved and the Committee withdrew the text contained in document A/C.2/69/L.30.

Programme planning

The Chair informed the Committee that there were currently no matters requiring the Committee’s attention under the item, and the Committee agreed to keep the item open until its work was completed.

Organization of work

The Chair then informed the Committee that the work of the Committee had been extended to 5 December, stressing that the extension was for final action, not for informal consultations.  Texts should be submitted to the Secretariat for processing by 1 December in order to meet the revised deadline.