"Poorest nations' in new aid plan

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32903, 29 April 1972, Page 15

"Poorest nations ' in new aid plan

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SANTIAGO, April 28.

Third-World countries last night joined forces in an attempt to bridge the economic gap between the world’s 25 poorest countries and the rest of the developing nations.

In three draft resolutions, a 13-page document to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in Chile, old regional rivalries and jockeying seemed set aside.

The group united in support of special aid, ranging from commodity agreements to lowered freight rates. Observers at the conference say that the scheme might easily become the outstanding achievement of the U.N.C.T.A.D. conference. The document asks that the 25 poor countries should be exempt from commodity agreement quota cuts, payments of dues and subscriptions and the pre-financing of buffer stocks. These should be paid by the developed nations. Measures must be taken to diversify the economies of the 25 and they must be given top priority in multilateral negotiations on easing trade barriers.

Revenue duties and other charges on the consumption of some tropical products should be eliminated or reduced and special financial assistance should be provided.

Developed countries must drop domestic support policies for the 25 and there must be urgent elimination of border taxes, customs, public health and administration regulations affecting the processed and semi-processed products of the leastdeveloped countries, the document said.

The “Group of 25” poor nations have a per capita income of $lOO or less, 20 per cent illiteracy and a 10 per cent or less manufacturing in their gross domestic product. They are: Upper

Volta, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Dahomey, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, Western Samoa, Sikkim, Yemen and Haiti.