Singapore, 1982

I should like to begin by extending my

delegation's congratulations to Mr. Hollai on his

election to the presidency of this session of the

General Assembly. He has served many years in the

Organization. The reputation he has acquired

among his peers is that of an extremely able,

knowledgeable, affable man of goodwill. I should

also like to say a word of thanks to his

predecessor, Mr. Kittani, for the excellent job

he did.

207. I have read the report of the

Secretary-General on the work of the Organization

with great admiration. It is refreshingly frank

and self-critical. I agree with him that our most

urgent goal is to reconstruct the United Nations

collective security system. With¬out such a

system, first, Governments will feel it necessary

to arm themselves beyond their means for their

own security; secondly, the world com¬munity will

remain powerless to deal with military adventures

such as Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the USSR's

invasion of Afghanistan and Viet Nam's invasion

of Kampuchea; thirdly, local conflicts will

threaten to widen and escalate; fourthly, there

will be no reliable defense for the small and

weak nations; and finally, all our efforts on the

economic and social side may well falter.

208. The Secretary-General has made a number

of specific recommendations on how to strengthen

the United Nations collective security system.

The Independent Commission on Security and

Disarma¬ment Issues, chaired by Mr. Olof Palme of

Sweden, has also made a number of interesting

recommen¬dations on the same subject." I urge the

Security Council to consider these

recommendations as soon as possible.

209. Turning to the specific conflicts and

situations which threaten international peace and

security, the Secretary-General was cautiously

optimistic on Namibia. He reports that after many

setbacks, we now see some signs of the

possibility of a solution. Apart from the

solitary exception of Namibia, the past year has

witnessed no progress in our efforts to promote

negotiated settlements on the conflicts in the

Middle East and elsewhere.

210. In the conflict in Kampuchea, our various

reso¬lutions have not brought about the

withdrawal of Viet¬namese forces. But the

unambiguous position of the vast majority of

nations, as reflected in the resolution and the

Declaration of the International Conference on

Kampuchea, has denied legitimacy to the

aggres¬sor, has stiffened and heartened patriotic

resistance to foreign occupation and encouraged

the various resistance factions to unite their

efforts under the leadership of Prince Norodom

Sihanouk. Thus, the aggressor has not been

allowed to enjoy the fruits of its actions.

211. The position of my delegation on the

other questions on the agenda of this session

will be enun¬ciated when these items are

considered by the General Assembly.

212. All the conflicts which the Assembly was

con¬sidering when we last met are still with us

today. The new wars in the South Atlantic and

Lebanon have shown us how quickly and

unexpectedly violence and turmoil can spread.

Every day newspaper headlines and the television

screen bring the terrible carnage into every home.

213. While these events have captured the

attention of the world, an economic crisis, no

less lethal In its effects on people, has been

spreading through the world. One symptom of this

crisis is the debt prob¬lem. In recent months the

world's headlines have drawn attention to the

problem of third-world debt. It is estimated that

the third_ world's debt js more than $US 500

billion. These debts were not accumu¬lated

overnight. The problem has been brewing for some

time. It is a combination of the problem of non-

oil-producing third world countries trying to

adjust to changes in energy costs and the

oil-producing third world countries embarking on

massive development projects in anticipation of

future oil income

214. The non-oil-producing third world

countries were first hit by high energy prices.

They were then hjt from another direction as the

industrialized coun¬tries increased the prices of

their products to meet increased energy costs. To

add to these difficulties, the recession in the

industrialized countries depressed the prices of

the primary commodities produced by these third

world countries. Squeezed between high costs and

falling incomes, these poor countries have had to

resort to massive borrowing for consumption and

not for investment. It is inconceivable to me how

this debt can be repaid or the interest serviced.

215. Default on even a portion of the massive

debts that have accumulated could trigger a total

collapse of the global financial system, which

would, in turn, lead to a deep global recession.

The mild panic that seized the financial pundits

of the West when they grasped the implications of

the situation that they had got themselves into

now seems to have been replaced by a mood of

superficial confidence, perhaps because no one

dares believe otherwise; no one dares say that

the emperor has no clothes.

216. Another problem with grave implications

is that of starvation. As much as 40 per cent of

the world's population suffers from some form of

undernourish¬ment. The fate of millions is

downright starvation. As the population continues

to increase in the poorest regions of the world,

more and more people will be forced below the

subsistence level of food intake.

Undernourishment and starvation are the work not

of fate but of human action. They can be

prevented. Much of the increasing starvation can

be attributed to the failure of national

policies. But we are not here to pass judgment on

national policies; we are here to see how we as

members of an international community can help

these nations in their plight. The problem is

particularly severe in Africa, where food

con¬sumption per person is 10 per cent less today

than it was a decade ago.

217. The problems of debt and famine, which I

have quoted as examples of the less

headline-grabbing prob¬lems of the global

community, are themselves only symptoms of a far

more serious malaise in the inter¬national

economy.

218. While the problem of global equity

remains serious, what we are confronted with

today is not simply the failure of the North to

respond to the South's call for a more equitable

economic relation¬ship but the incipient

disintegration of the entire economic system that

has sustained both North and South for the past

40 years. The consequences of such a total

collapse would far outweigh the present

injustices of the system. A renowned professor of

the London School of Economics, which is not

unsympathetic to the third world, once remarked

that the misery of being exploited by capitalists

is nothing compared to the misery of not being

exploited at all.

219. The liberal trading regime set up after

the Second World War and institutionalized in

GATT has clearly been unable to cope with the

stresses and strains generated by new conditions.

The developed countries have been unable to cope

with the increas¬ingly sensitive impact that one

national economy has on another under conditions

of interdependence and they have been unable to

restructure their domestic economies to deal with

new patterns of international trade, production

and consumption.

220. The result has been increasing

protectionism in the form of a complex system of

"orderly marketing arrangements", "voluntary

export re¬straints" and a host of other

euphemistically named non-tariff barriers

designed to circumvent GATT. So prevalent have

such practices become that the danger is that

exceptions to GATT will become more numerous than

instances of compliance. The effect of such

protectionism has been to freeze the existing

distribution of industrial capability and wealth.

One recent study has demonstrated that three

quarters of all actions to restrict imports under

safeguard, surveillance and anti-dumping

provisions dealt with only three product groups:

steel, textiles and clothing. Locational

advantages in such production have shifted

rapidly, and, by and large, the lowest- cost

producers are now countries in the third world,

which are now being penalized for their success.

221. The problems of debt, famine and protectionism

are interrelated. Protectionism freezes existing

patterns of international trade in which the

developed countries have consistently enjoyed

huge trade sur¬pluses W.s-n-ws the developing

countries. Such imbalances require financing and

thus necessitate heavy borrowing and a growing

debt burden.

222. Protectionism also deliberately restricts

levels of food production. In Japan, North

America and Europe protectionist agricultural

systems have included measures to curtail the

production of surpluses of major cereals and some

other commodities. The European Economic

Community has for two decades subsidized farm

production while keeping out cheaper imports. The

inevitable surplus stocks lie idle white much of

the world starves. The lesson is clear. The

liberal trading system, in spite of all its

faults, offers the best framework for a more

equitable international economic system. It is

increasingly clear that more developing countries

are becoming competitive in the international

market. It is also becoming clear that if the

principles of comparative advantage are allowed

to operate unhindered, this must result in a

correction of the grossly disproportionate

consumption of the world's resources by the

developed countries. We cannot hope for a more

equitable distribution of global income if the

liberal trading regime continues to be

under¬mined.

223. To my mind, the basic cause of

protectionism is the failure of the developed

countries to manage State welfare within national

means and to direct economic growth to keep pace

with technological changes. Over-expenditure on

welfare has resulted in inflexible domestic

political structures. Governments of the

developed countries have been deprived of the

political flexibility needed to make changes in

international patterns of trade and production

without resort to protectionism.

224. The pressure for protectionism comes from

many quarters. It comes from industries in

developed countries which have not modernized

their production processes and thus find

themselves unable to compete with more efficient

and lower-cost plants in developing countries.

But the political pressures for protectionism

also come from trade union movements in the

devel-oped countries, which, acting from a

short-sighted desire to protect workers in

declining industries, have urged and forced

protectionist measures on Governments.

225. They have sought to organize boycotts of

third- world products and services under the

guise of con¬cern for the heath of workers in

developing countries or of preventing

exploitation of workers in those countries. The

charge that exports from developing countries are

based on cheap labor is simplistic. It is true

that the wages of third-world workers are lower

than those of workers in developed countries. But

the choice before the workers in the third world

is either one meal or starvation. For no third

world country with all the inherent drawbacks of

its low development status can be competitive if

its workers are paid the wages of workers in

developed coun¬tries. Thus, when union leaders in

some developed countries insist that wages and

working conditions enjoyed by them must be

accorded to workers in the third world countries,

they are in fact telling the workers in the third

world to starve. There are no welfare benefits

and unemployment pay in most third world

countries. The irony is that low-cost imports

from the third world would certainly benefit the

con¬sumer in developed countries by reducing his

cost of living.

226. There has been a great change in the

attitude of the developed countries towards

third-world devel¬opment. In the immediate

post-war years, the developed countries took a

very positive view of economic development in the

third world. From the late 1940s to the 1960s,

they believed that it was in their interest to

help in the economic development of the poorer

nations of the world. These three decades of

generous technical and monetary assistance to

help these countries take advantage of the

benefits of the free-trade system.

227. Today the attitude of the rich nations to

eco¬nomic development in the third world is a

mixture of disillusionment and fear. To be frank,

much of the blame for the disillusionment can be

laid at the door of developing countries

themselves. The launching of over-ambitious and

prestigious projects has not encour¬aged those

who are sympathetic to aid programmes. More

important, huge arms expenditures in pursuit of

ancient conflicts and animosities against

neighbors has crippled economic growth in some

developing countries. Much emphasis has lately

been placed on economic co-operation among

developing countries. The most vital form of

co-operation among developing countries is

co-operation to maintain peace and stability

among neighbors.

228. In this respect I should like to point to

the regional grouping of the Association of

South-East Asian Nations which has created

an area of peace, amity and co-operation among

its five members. Its members have therefore been

able to derive the maximum benefit from their

national economic devel¬opment policies.

229. While we must not ignore the shortcomings

in the third world, it is also true that a number

of third world countries, in response to Western

exhortations that they should trade rather than

depend on aid, have manifested a capacity to

compete with the West in industrial areas

involving low technology. The response in the

developed world to this modest suc¬cess at

development has not been praise or

encour¬agement. Rather, there have been alarmist

calls for protection from entrepreneurs and

labour unions in developed countries.

230. The developing countries of the third

world are thus caught in a "no-win" situation. If

they are unsuccessful in their development

efforts, they are condemned for inefficiency,

corruption, xenophobia and a host of other evils.

If they should succeed, they are penalized for

their very success.

231. The slow strangulation of a liberal

trading system with increase international

tension. The television cameras may not notice

the process, but I fear that, if we continue to

neglect the problem, we shall have all too much

drama. The major devel-oped countries are

increasingly divided among them¬selves. The North

and the South will move further apart.

Desperation will breed irresponsibility. The

benefits of all this will redound to those Powers

that profit from and exploit instability and

divisions. The result will be an increase in

international insta¬bility. This threat to the

stability of the international system is

fundamental. In an interdependent world, autarky

is no longer a viable option for any nation. The

question that all of us must face is whether we

can muster sufficient political will to preserve

the integrity of the system before the point of

no return is reached.