Dominican Republic, 2011

We extend our warmest congratulations to the

Ambassador from Qatar, Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz

Al-Nasser, on his recent election as President of the

General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session. We

welcome his intention to use this session to address

pressing issues such as mediation and conflict

resolution, the reform of the United Nations system,

preventing and responding to natural disasters and

sustainable development for global prosperity.

Ten years ago, the dynamic and vibrant city of

New York was shocked by something previously

inconceivable: the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.

Thousands of innocent people died in horrific ways,

leaving relatives and friends in a state of helplessness

and sorrow. Echoes of that terror reverberated around

the planet, leaving scars and a trail of pain to this day.

The world has not been the same since then.

In the interest of security, even in strong

democracies where genuine rule of law prevails, some

individual liberties, previously considered sacred and

immutable, have been sacrificed. While the ashes were

still smouldering and the rubble of the Twin Towers

still lay where it fell, the war in Afghanistan was

launched, which, although perhaps justified as a case

of legitimate defence, has nevertheless produced more

victims than the terrorist attacks themselves. Then

came the occupation of Iraq, which spurred

controversy in various circles of international public

opinion but in any case certainly generated more

violence, produced new victims and new waves of

human suffering and caused more destruction of

wealth.

The lesson to be learned from these past 10 years

is that there must be a collective effort to eliminate

terrorism as an inhuman practice, to eliminate as well

the economic, social, political, cultural, ideological and

religious factors that fuel it, and to promote a world

that is more open, more tolerant, more respectful and

more willing to engage in dialogue and in the

recognition of human dignity.

Another event that has shaken the world during

the past decade has been the global financial crisis,

produced by a lack of clear rules in the international

financial system, as well as by arrogance, greed and the

unquenchable thirst for wealth. That crisis has gone

through several stages, but at this moment what is most

worrisome is that it has caused a division among the

most influential and powerful political and economic

sectors in the world over strategies to fix it. While

some think that what is needed at this time is public-

spending stimulus policies to promote economic

growth and job creation, others emphasize reducing

fiscal deficits and paying off sovereign debt.

How can international capital markets now

demand that Governments pay a debt that was created,

to a large extent, to save financial institutions from

going under in the first place? Although incongruous,

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that is exactly what is taking place. Markets are

currently putting pressure on States to pay sovereign

debts that were themselves essentially the result of

earlier initiatives by States to rescue banks that were

either at risk or on the brink of bankruptcy.

In order to avoid having to stop payments or

defaulting and watching their economies crumble

further, Governments have had to give in to the

pressure of the markets by implementing severe

austerity measures. Those policies have significantly

decreased citizens’ quality of life, leading to social

unrest and protest movements that erode Governments’

legitimacy and support base. Although it might seem

paradoxical, in some developed countries loss of

popular support has caused Governments to fall,

which, in echoes of coups d’état, have led to a new

political phenomenon that might be called, for lack of a

better word, market “coups”.

What is strange about this situation is that what

we need is resources to save the international financial

system, stabilize the world economy and return us to

our earlier levels of economic growth and prosperity —

and those resources are at hand. For example, it is

known that even though $4 trillion circulate every day

around the world in the form of financial transactions

in capital markets, no taxes are in place that would

increase States’ fiscal resources.

How much would Governments collect through a

5 per cent tax on the $4 trillion circulating daily around

the world? That would represent $20 billion per day,

which, multiplied by five business days a week, would

come to a total of $100 billion. If, in turn, we multiply

that number by four weeks a month we would have

monthly income of $400 billion. And those $400 billion

monthly, multiplied by 12 months in a year, amount to

an astronomical $4.8 trillion. That amount would not

only resolve the problems of some countries’ sovereign

debt but there would be enough fresh resources for

investing, which would allow a rapid recovery from the

current financial and economic world crisis.

Nonetheless, were we to conclude that this was

not an appropriate way for States to raise revenue,

what about the more than 10 trillion dollars deposited

in tax havens, according to reports by international

advisory institutions?

As we know, not a cent from those deposits,

which increase by more than 600 billion dollars every

year, reaches the tax services of any Government.

In the meantime, through our failure to tax

international financial transactions and the deposits

made in tax havens, the global financial and economic

crisis continues, citizens become indignant as they see

their standard of living erode, social demonstrations

multiply, Governments are threatened by the lack of

governance, chaos takes over societies, and uncertainty

expands everywhere.

In sum, we are forced to accept increasingly

alarming levels of social injustice because of the

undeniable and uncontrollable power held by a circle

of the world’s economic elite.

Despite the wide range of global problems before

us, I wish to address just one of them: financial

speculation on the price of food and oil. The

Dominican Republic will submit a draft resolution on

the subject to this Assembly General.

Since 2005 there has been a steady increase in the

prices of food and oil, along with that of petroleum

by-products.

From 2006 to 2008, the price of soya beans has

increased 107 per cent; the price of corn, 125 per cent;

rice, 127 per cent; and wheat, 136 per cent.

According to the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as a result

of those price increases, 150 million people joined

those around the world who already literally go hungry.

As a result, for the first time in the history of

humankind, the total number of people who lack access

to food surpassed 1 billion, which represents almost a

sixth of the world population.

With the recession that took place during the

second half of 2008, food prices went down, and it was

thought that we would return to a situation of

accessible food prices and overall increased stability.

However, with the slight upturn and reactivation

of the world economy in 2010, prices went up again,

and this year the ravages of inflation have been felt

once again in different parts of the world.

The same has happened with the price of oil.

After falling to $12 a barrel in 1998, ten years later, in

July 2008, two months before the bankruptcy of

Lehman Brothers, it was priced at $147 a barrel.

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Paradoxically, at the end of 2008, oil prices had

dropped so precipitously that the new price on the

international market was $37 a barrel.

Who could possibly explain something as absurd

as a price drop from $147 to $37 a barrel in just four

months?

It has been argued that, with regard to both food

and oil, those exorbitant price increases can be

explained by the growth of the world population, an

increase in demand from emerging economies,

especially China and India, the effects of climate

change, and geo-political tensions in regions of the

world affected by conflict.

There can be no doubt that some of those factors

have influenced prices to some extent, but there has

also been a clear effort to downplay the importance of

a new element in international markets: financial

speculation in commodity futures.

According to well-known international analysts,

30 to 40 per cent of the price increases for

commodities or basic products can be ascribed to the

impact or influence of financial speculation on futures

contracts.

In light of that situation, which has a daily impact

on our food- and oil-importing people, the Dominican

Republic has weighed the need to propose regulatory

measures of international scope in order to guarantee

market transparency and price stability.

To that end, it is essential to limit the volume of

transactions that may be executed by such futures

market participants as insurance companies, investment

banks, pension funds and equity funds, among others,

which play no direct part in the physical production of

the product.

Likewise, deposits on futures contracts should be

raised, as a way to discourage speculative transactions

that only contribute to price volatility and create

uncertainty and a lack of market predictability.

We believe that by adopting such a resolution we

will take an important step towards solving a serious

problem that has condemned a large part of humankind

to hunger and destitution.

In sum, the objective of this initiative is simple,

just, and of far-reaching importance, namely, to

persuade the Assembly General of the United Nations

to declare, for the sake of the human race, that food

cannot be considered a financial asset.

Food must be used only to guarantee the survival

of the human race on the face of the Earth.