|
|
|
|
  |
 |
 |
 |
|  |
Le Canada et l’ONU > Newton Bowles Reports Ce document est disponible seulement en anglais.
ANNEX 4 Failing Currencies, Recriminations, Who's to
Blame? International Agreements The growth of international investment is even more striking. Presently foreign direct investment (FDI) amounts to some $350 billion, a fivefold increase since the mid-80s. And in both trade and investment flows the share of developing countries is increasing rapidly. A major change is thus underway in the world economy. In the past the global economy was primarily driven by trade. It is now turning into a system in which FDI is assuming that role. It is the multinational corporations that are responsible for this. During the first part of the 1990s international economic cooperation intensified as well. The conclusion of the Uruguay Round has substantially lessened trade barriers. After the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), new elements were added to the agenda such as services, investments and the financial sector. At the same time regional trade cooperation was strengthened by means of regional trade agreements (NAFTA, ASEAN). In Europe far-reaching decisions were taken concerning the establishment of an Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of a single currency, explicitly meant to improve Europe's international competitiveness in the global market. The liberalization of capital transactions has been taken up by the IMF. Its resources have recently been enlarged by raising the quotas and by a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights. The Paris Club dealt with an increasing number of indebted countries and welcomed the Republic of Russia, an important old creditor as well as new debtor, as a member. This together with the HIPC initiative will help very poor and highly indebted countries participate in the world economy. The common characteristic of these international agreements is that they all concern the same field: international economic development resulting from an interplay between market forces. These agreements have been effective and have resulted in decisions and in the build-up of new rules, new international policy measures and the strengthening of institutions. However, international cooperation did not proceed in other fields: social policy, poverty reduction, climate change, desertification, forest conservation, water resources management, migration. International conferences were held on these issues too, but they were seminars, mere talking-shops, taking no decisions. And, as I said already, there was no progress at all in the international management of conflicts. The international and intergovernmental consultations which did produce results in fact helped market forces to interact globally and to meet and compete with each other, allocating investment, increasing production, facilitating transportation and trade, providing worldwide access to technology, pushing and attracting capital across borders, opening up new markets, fostering global information and communication. Indeed, during this decade the globalization of markets had been greatly facilitated by intergovernmental decisions. What international cooperation there has been was designed to facilitate globalization. The 1990s have become the decade of the breakthrough of the globalization process. One development that was difficult to assess in 1992 was the impact the globalization process would have. We now can say that it is a revolution. As with all revolutions, globalization is irreversible and uncheckable, transforming whole societies. Technological advances, the driving force behind globalization, keep on accelerating our potential to communicate with anybody, anywhere and anytime. Technological progress enables us to process, store, retrieve and communicate information in whatever form, unrestrained by distance, time and volume. It is communications and information technology that intensifies economic interdependence on a world scale. This revolution is adding immense new capacities to human intelligence and constitutes a resource that is fundamentally changing the economy and our way of life, as soon as we are affected by it. |
