CM/Res. 122(IX)
AFRICA AND UNCTAD
The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Ninth Ordinary Session in Kinshasa, Congo, from 4 to 10 September 1967,
Recognizing that international trade plays a major role in the economic development of all nations and particularly the developing countries;
Noting the necessity that African States must increase their export earnings as the main source for financing their development plans;
Noting that the volume of the foreign trade of developing countries constitutes a very small portion of world trade;
Noting further that raw materials have to face the perils of price fluctuations and of the growing imbalance between the prices of raw materials and those of finished products, as well as the keen competition of synthetic products,
Noting that developed countries are making a concerted effort to delay the implementation of the recommendations and resolutions of the First World conference on Trade and Development;
Taking into consideration the fact that industrialized Western countries have succeeded in reducing their tariffs in the context of the Kennedy Round recently held at Geneva, and convinced that this customed liberalization may jeopardize the efforts made by Africa to diversify its exports and increase the volume of its foreign trade;
Recalling that the second meeting of the Economic and Social Commission of the OAU, which was held at Cairo in 1965, devoted considerable time and attention to considering the recommendations of the First Conference on Trade and Development, and supported joint OAU/ECA action in that field;
Recalling further that on two occasions, one at Addis Ababa (April 1966) and once at Geneva (August 1966), the OAU ad hoc Committee of Fourteen on Trade and Development and the ECA Working Party on inter-African Trade examined the
growth, with special regard to African needs;
Noting further that the Second United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) will take place at New Delhi in February and March 1968, and that the Group of Seventy-Seven will meet at Algiers from 10 to 20 October 1967, to harmonize their positions before the second UNCTAD and reach an agreement on the objectives of the Conference;
Noting with satisfaction that the report submitted by the General Secretariat of the OAU on Trade and development, which contains certain recommendations laying stress on the importance of the second UNCTAD for Africa and on the need for a common African position as regards the agenda of the New Delhi Conference:
RECOMMENDS:
That the African members of the Group of Seventy-Seven meet on the 7th of October before the Algiers meeting of the Group of Seventy-Seven in the same city on the 10th of October, to adopt a uniform position and co-ordinate African views regarding the agenda of the forthcoming Conference;
That the African members of the Group of Seventy-Seven participate actively in the high-level mission which will be organized by the Seventy-Seven with a view to visiting the developed countries and negotiating with them regarding the ways and means whereby the recommendations of the first UNCTAD are to be implemented before the New Delhi Conference;
INVITES the Administrative Secretary-General of the OAU to give every possible assistance to the African groups both at the forthcoming Algiers meeting and at the UNCTAD meeting in New Delhi.