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Macroeconomic policy questions
Date of consideration:
10 October 2005
Second Committee Report
(59th session):
A/59/481
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Document:
A/60/111 [F]
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Letter dated 5 July 2005 from the
Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations
addressed to the Secretary-General
(a)
International trade and development
Date of consideration:
31 October 2005
Second Committee Report
(59th session):
A/59/481/Add.1
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Documents:
A/60/15(Part I)
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Report of the Trade and
Development Board on its thirty-sixth executive session, 3 May
2005 (Mandate: GA res. 1995 (XIX))
A/60/15(Part II)
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Report of the Trade and
Development Board on its thirty-seventh executive session,
26 July 2005 (Mandate: GA res. 1995 (XIX))
A/60/15(Part III)
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Report of the Trade and
Development Board on its twenty-second special session, 18
July 2005 (Mandate: GA res. 1995 (XIX))
A/60/15(Part IV)
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Report of the Trade and
Development Board on its fifty-second regular session (Mandate: GA res. 1995 (XIX))
A/60/129
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Letter dated 13 July 2005 from the
Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations
addressed to the Secretary-General
A/60/225
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Report of the Secretary-General on
international trade and development and on developments in the
multilateral trading system (Mandate: GA res.
59/221, para. 35)
A/60/226
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Report of the Secretary-General on
unilateral economic measures as a means of political and
economic coercion against developing countries (Mandate: GA
res.
58/198, para. 4)
Summary:
At its
thirty-eighth session, in 1983, the General Assembly
reaffirmed that developed countries should refrain from
threatening or applying trade restrictions, blockades,
embargoes and other economic sanctions incompatible with the
provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and in
violation of undertakings contracted multilaterally or
bilaterally, against developing countries as a form of
political and economic coercion which affected their economic,
political and social development; and requested the
Secretary-General to compile information provided by
Governments on the adoption and the effects of the economic
measures mentioned above, taken by developed countries as a
means of political and economic coercion against developing
countries (resolution 38/197).
Subsequently,
the General Assembly considered the issue at its thirty-ninth
to forty-second sessions and then biennially thereafter
(resolutions 39/210, 40/185, 41/165, 42/173, 44/215, 46/210,
48/168, 50/96, 52/181, 54/200 and 56/178).
At its
fifty-eighth session, the General Assembly urged the
international community to adopt urgent and effective measures
to eliminate the use of unilateral coercive economic measures
against developing countries that were not authorized by
relevant organs of the United Nations or were inconsistent
with the principles of international law as set forth in the
Charter of the United Nations and that contravened the basic
principles of the multilateral trading system; requested the
Secretary-General to continue to monitor the imposition of
measures of that nature and to study the impact of such
measures on the affected countries, including the impact on
trade and development; and also requested the
Secretary-General to submit a report to the Assembly at its
sixtieth session on the implementation of the resolution
(resolution 58/198).
The United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was
established on 30 December 1964 as an organ of the General
Assembly (resolution 1995 (XIX)). The 192 members of the
Conference are States Members of the United Nations or members
of specialized agencies or of the International Atomic Energy
Agency. The principal functions of the Conference are set out
in section II, paragraph 3, of resolution 1995 (XIX). The
Conference held its eleventh session at São Paulo, Brazil,
from 14 to 18 June 2004.
When the
Conference is not in session, the 148-member Trade and
Development Board carries out the functions that fall within
the competence of the Conference. The Board reports to the
Conference and also reports annually on its activities to the
General Assembly. The Board convened its thirty-sixth and
thirty-seventh executive sessions in May and July 2005 and its
twenty-second special session in July 2005. The fifty-second
regular session of the Board is scheduled to be held from 3 to 14 October 2005.
At its
fifty-ninth session, the General Assembly, inter alia,
requested the Secretary-General, in collaboration with the
secretariat of UNCTAD, to report to the General Assembly at
its sixtieth session on the implementation of the resolution
and on developments in the multilateral trading system
(resolution 59/221).
(b)
International financial system and development
Date of consideration:
10 October 2005
Second Committee Report
(59th session):
A/59/481/Add.2
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Document:
A/60/163
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Report of the Secretary-General on
the international financial system and development (Mandate:
GA res.
59/222, para. 21)
Summary:
The
General Assembly considered this question at its fiftieth to
fifty-eighth sessions (resolutions 50/91, 51/166, 52/180,
53/172, 54/197, 55/186, 56/181, 57/241 and 58/202).
At its
fifty-ninth session, the General Assembly, inter alia,
underlined the importance of promoting international financial
stability and sustainable growth; also underlined the
importance of national efforts to increase resilience to
financial risk; stressed the importance of strong domestic
institutions in promoting business activities and financial
stability for the achievement of growth and development;
encouraged the international financial institutions to
continue examining the issues of the voice and effective
participation of developing countries and countries with
economies in transition in their decision-making processes;
looked forward to further consideration of the subject of
possible innovative and additional sources of financing for
development from all sources; invited the multilateral and
regional development banks and development funds to continue
to play a vital role in serving the development needs of
developing countries and countries with economies in
transition; called for the continued effort of the
multilateral financial institutions to work on the basis of
nationally owned reform and development strategies; strongly
encouraged leading bond issuing countries and the private
sector to make substantial progress on the preparation of an
effective code of conduct; and requested the Secretary-General
to report to the Assembly at its sixtieth session on the
implementation of the resolution (resolution 59/222).
(c)
External debt crisis and development
Date of consideration:
10 October 2005
Second Committee Report
(59th session):
A/59/481/Add.3
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Document:
A/60/139
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Report of the Secretary-General on
the international financial system and development (Mandate:
GA res.
59/223, para. 19)
Summary:
The General
Assembly first considered this subject at its fortieth session
and has addressed the issue as a separate agenda item at each
subsequent session (resolutions 41/202, 42/198, 43/198,
44/205, 45/214, 46/148, 47/198, 48/182, 49/94, 50/92, 51/164,
52/185, 53/175, 54/202, 55/184, 56/184, 57/240 and 58/203 and
decision 40/474).
At its
fifty-ninth session, the General Assembly reaffirmed the
importance of the comprehensive treatment of developing
countries' debt problems, as stressed by the United Nations
Millennium Declaration and the Monterrey Consensus of the
International Conference on Financing for Development;
welcomed the further extension of the sunset clause of the
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative; stressed that debt
sustainability depended on a confluence of many factors at the
international and national levels, and emphasized that
country-specific circumstances and the impact of external
shocks should be taken into account in debt sustainability
analyses; noted with concern that some countries that had
reached the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries Initiative had not been able to achieve lasting debt
sustainability; stressed the importance of promoting
responsible lending and borrowing and avoiding a build-up of
unsustainable debt, including through the use of grants; also
stressed the need to find a solution for the debt problems of
heavily indebted low- and middle-income developing countries
that were not eligible for debt relief under the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and in that regard
welcomed the Evian Approach of the Paris Club; acknowledged
the ongoing work towards a more comprehensive approach to
sovereign debt restructuring, supported the inclusion of
collective action clauses in international bond issues and
encouraged bond-issuing countries to make progress in the
preparation of an effective code of conduct; and requested the
Secretary-General to submit to the Assembly at its sixtieth
session a report on the implementation of the resolution and
to include in that report a comprehensive and substantive
analysis of the external debt and debt-servicing problems of
developing countries (resolution 59/223).
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