Both sides claim forum victory

Press, 24 September 1983, Page 3

Both sides claim forum victory

From

G. G. SHAND,

in Port-of-Spain

The New Zealand initiative for a new world economic conference will be the subject of further discussions by Commonwealth leaders when they meet in New Delhi in November.

This was the vague, but diplomatically acceptable, outcome of two’ days of relatively inconclusive discussions by Commonwealth Finance Ministers on the best way to reform the world trade and payments system. What the post-conference communique referral to New Delhi means in terms of the success or otherwise of the New Zealand initiative depends on who you believe.

According to the British, Canadian and Australian delegations, the postponement is a diplomatic compromise, the upshot of which will be no world conference.

But according to the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, the result is a “satisfactory” one which maintains the momentum of his campaign for a second international Bretton Woods conference. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Nigel Lawson, joined the Canadian Finance Minister, Mr Marc Lalonde, in openly criticising Mr Muldoon’s initiative, saying he believed such a conference would probably be a waste of time.

. “I have some sympathy with Marc Lalonde who said earlier that if one was setting out to ensure something

got nowhere and ran into the sand, one would go on about a great conference some years down the road and probably nothing would be agreed anyway. “We have got to approach this (trade and payments) problem in a much more down to earth, piecemeal fashion,” he said. Mr Lawson, attending his first conference as the British Chancellor, said he also

agreed with Mr Lalonde that the United States — on whom Mr Muldoon is pinning most of his hopes for agreement — would probably take a similar view.

Mr Muldoon rejected the views of both men, saying neither were close enough to the United States view on another Bretton Woods to make such an assessment. Mr Muldoon said he had had discussions on his initiative with the American

Deputy-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Mr Allan Wallis, in New Zealand earlier this year, and there was “very little” he did not agree with. Despite the rather emphatic expressed opposition of both Mr Lalonde and Mr Lawson, Mr Muldoon insisted that the opposition of the Canadian and British

delegations was “muted” compared with their response when he first raised the issue in London

12 months ago. Mr Lawson, said Mr Muldoon, had arrived in Trini-

dad with a rather “imper-

fect grasp” of the Bretton Woods’ plan and now that

he had been “better briefed” he was a “little more favourably disposed.” Mr Muldoon said it was now clear that the Commonwealth overwhelmingly supported his initiative. Mr Muldoon now says his main aim in Washington and New York over the next fortnight will be to spread; the message far and wide to try and convert non-Com-monwealth countries.

“Between Washington and New Delhi I would hope that we would get a response from countries outside the Commonwealth,” he said. “The important issue is whether the

Americans will wear it.” Neither Mr Lalonde nor Mr Lawson, he said, would be making the final decision and therefore their support at Trinidad was not so important to the final outcome.

However, according to officials from the British, Canadian and Australian delegations here, President Reagan is no more likely to accept a second Bretton Woods than will their own respective leaders — Mrs Thatcher, Mr Trudeau and Mr Hawke — when it is discussed in New Delhi in two months.