Economic reform in 1985, P.M. predicts

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 5

Economic reform in 1985, P.M. predicts

NZPA staff correspondent • Washington The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, yesterday called for all countries to “give up a little sovereignty” to bring the world’s trade and payments system into balance. Sir Robert was speaking at a seminar at the Berkeley campus of the University of California. The seminar grouped high-powered Americans, including a senior State Department official and businessmen, with international corporations. Sir Robert said that he had been pleased with it and a commitment by the University to continue studying the economic problems he had discussed. Many of the university

economists, however, had looked at the issues from a purely American, rather an an international perspective, he said. After explaining his “Bretton Woods” proposals to the seminar, Sir Robert said that the abandonment of sovereignty in certain areas was “finally what we are talking about.” For economic reforms to work, a flexible time-frame for changes appropriate to each country, and reasonable safeguards were needed, he said. Governments were prepared to give up sovereignty in small doses if they could point to reciprocal benefits, and defend themselves politically at home.

The international com-

munity, was not far from a consensus on the agenda for a re-examination of the trade and payments system, he said. “If the process, or mechanism, proposed for this work is fundamentally flawed in a political or technical sense then that frankly, will be the end of it." The developing nations had accepted that a huge conference based on a “one country, one vote” system would not work. “The alternative — a committee of about 22 countries along the lines of the development or interim committees of the International Monetary Fund — seems much more promising,” Sir Robert said. The task for this year was to push that convergence a little further and a little harder. ' Sir Robert said that he hoped a broad agreement could be reached by 1985. “The position of the United States will, of course, be the key to this.” Sir Robert was later yesterday the guest of honour at a dinner with Shirley Temple Black, the former child film star, now the Ambassador to Ghana.

Today Sir Robert will meet the Mayor of San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein.