THE UNITED STATES HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MOVE AWAY FROM THE HIGHLY POLEMIC "NORTH-SOUTH" DIALOGUE TOWARD A MORE REALISTIC EFFORT TO ASSIST THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00275R000100140001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 2, 2007
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
The United States Has an Opportunity to Move Away From The Highly Polemic
"North-South" Dialogue Toward a More Realistic Effort to Assist Third
World Countries
To date, the North-South dialogue has (not surprisingly) borne little
fruit. There has been a yawning gap between the rhetoric of discussants and
pragmatic efforts to confront concrete problems. Both developed and less
developed countries have indulged in the articulation of sweeping demands and
responses, rarely getting down to brass tacks. There has also been an
emphasis on process rather than substance, with enormous expenditures of time
and effort expended in debating how to debate issues and in discussing how
best to organize and facilitate discussions of issues.
More specifically, the global exchange has failed to discuss the
enormous and growing differences that exist in economic prospects among
developing countries and has paid little attention to the important bilateral
economic links that have evolved between the developed and less developed
world. Instead the discussion has focused mainly on ways to boost the flow of
resources from the developed to less developed world, even though recent
experience has shown that this approach does little to spur sustained economic
growth and in some cases even hinders progress. There are several reasons why
rhetoric and generalization have not given way to realism:
-- The most vociferous supporters of the "global" effort, both in the
Third World and the West, are captives of strong ideological
predispositions which emphasize socialist utopias rather than
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incrementalism and flexibility.
-- The profound economic and political differences among the countries
of the Third World, can be papered over only by resort to rhetoric
and generalization.
-- Western beliefs in the free market, unfettered trade and
investment, and private enterprise are incompatible with the
socialist and collectivist beliefs of many Third World leaders.
-- There are significant differences in the perceptions and economic
interests of the DCs themselves.
-- With a few exceptions, LDCs are neither politically nor
economically critical to the West.
For their part, the European socialists and their allies see the LDCs as
the international equivalent of the "underclass" within their own societies.
Thus, they seek to harmonize their international attitudes with their domestic
policies of economic and social reform. Despite these oft stated beliefs, the
countries of Western Europe and Japan have relatively little to offer the
LDCs. In varying degrees, all of them have acute budgetary and other economic
problems at home that preclude bold new initiatives in the North-South
arena. Then, too, they are constrained by an array of domestic interests that
would resist such initiatives. For example, even though Japan, Canada, and
most countries of Western Europe have supported a reduction in trade barriers
against LDC manufacturers, their markets have remained relatively more closed
to such LDC goods than the United States. Indeed, the EC has recently called
for a further tightening of textile imports from LDCs in order to protect
domestic industries.
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The changing political-economic envoronment provides an opportunity to
move away from the polemics of the North-South global debate toward a more
constructive approach to Third World development. An increasing number of
Third World leaders are following more pragmatic policies, a change that has
been spurred by the hard economic times of recent years. This tendency has
also been encouraged by the increased awareness among LDC leaders of the
success that the NICs have had in utilizing the private sector to encourage
economic expansion. For example, Argentina, Chile, Jamaica and Sri Lanka have
adopted policies that are closer to those followed by the NICs. Finally, many
LDC governments are keenly aware that concessional aid increases will be small
because the industrial countries are coping with fiscal constraints and most
OPEC members are facing shrinking oil revenues.
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