CONFIDENTIAL
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
PMVA9)5
ECONOMIC SUMMIT, TOKYO 28/29 JUNE 1979
RELATIONS WITH THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Brief by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
COPY NO
POINTS TO MAKE
1.
importance of
was not
UNCTAD V reached useful consensus on some issues, eg on
continued resistance to protectionism. Even where agreement
possible, lack of acrimony was encouraging. More dramatic results not to
be expected in current difficult economic circumstances.
post mortem by Heads of Government.
2.
No call for
But oil price rises exacerbate problems of developing countries and
reduce our ability to help solve them. Our chief contribution to North/
South Dialogue at this stage must be to take decisions on the energy
dossier. We can contribute through the World Bank and bilaterally to
energy development in the developing countries and through encouraging
producer/consumer contacts. The developing countries ought to play their
part in persuading OPEC countries to keep prices down.
3. Oil price rise will increase deficits of non-oil LDCs. Those developed
countries who can increase their ODA should do so. British Government see
their main task as being to put the UK economic house in order. We intend
to encourage trade and investment in and with the developing countries.
We shall maintain a substantial Aid Programme but it will not be exempt
from public expenditure cuts which go right across the board.
4.
(If necessary) A global stabex scheme on German Lines would be
expensive for us and inequitable in its application to developing countries.
Much better in our view to improve the existing Compensatory Financing
Facility (CFF).
(If necessary) The New International Development Strategy should not
contain rigid targets for either the developed or the developing countries.
5.
The future is impossible to forecast accurately.
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