NationStates Jolt Archive

Category: Free Trade
A resolution to reduce barriers to free trade and commerce

Resolution Name: Trade and Development

My dear members United Nation,

RECOGNISING the increasing economy gap between the first class countries and developing countries,

NOTING that there is lack of significant global effort to help out other member to develop economically,

CONVINCED that helping each other to develop economically is the only way for every country to improve their citizens’ standard of living,

SEEKING to close up the economical gap and progress together as a United Nation,

HEREBY:

Push for the formation of Department of Trade and Development and headed by a Secretary-General and a panel of 10 eminent persons, knowledgeable of development issues and with international standing in the field.

Functions
3 key functions of the Department of Trade and Development are

1) A forum for intergovernmental deliberation, supported by discussions with experts and experience sharing, aimed at consensus building.
2) Undertaking research, policy analysis and data collection for the debates of government representatives and experts.
3) Being a platform where nations can liaise with national governments to provide technical assistance tailored to the specific requirements of developing countries, with special attention to the needs of the least developed countries and of economies in transition.

Commissions
In order for the department to focus on specific areas, the department will be made up of 5 commissions. Each of these commissions will be looking after aspects that are building blocks of a strong and progressive economical nation. The Panel of 10 eminent persons will overlook these 5 Commissions:

1) Trade and commodities
2) Investment and enterprise development
3) Macroeconomic policies, debt and development financing
4) Transport, customs and information technology
5) Science and technology


Trade and Development Conferences

The department will held conferences regularly and the commissions will be responsible for their area of focus during these conferences.

There will be three levels of conferences
1. Expert level - specialised experts of specific fields will gather for discussions. Such discussions allow government representatives to take advantage of valuable technical input from academics, practitioners and the private sector.
2. Internal level - panel addresses policy issues in specific areas. The conference also allows the panel to provide guidance for the work of the secretariat.
3. International level - assessments of current trade and development issues, discuss policy options and formulate global policy responses. The conference also sets the organization’s mandate and work priorities.

Different levels of conferences will be held at different times of the year so as to allow issues from the micro-level to be brought up to the macro-level or macro-level to micro-level.

Membership

Members of the Untied Nations are urged to participate actively in activities held by this department.




Paul Adrian II
Ambassador of The Theocracy of Morulcrow to UN
Member of the Holy Dough Counsel

Welcome to the UN, Morulcrow!

I've just deleted the other copies of your draft resolution. The double, triple, whatever, posts happen because you're still on moderated status (click this link) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=511849). You'll avoid multiple posts if you make sure NOT TO post again when your first post doesn't appear.

Kudos for posting a draft before you submit your proposal. The regulars will suggest changes. If any of the posts sound a little ... odd ... they may be speaking in character (IC) as their nation's representative in the UN. Don't let it worry you.

Speaking of which ...

IC:

Welcome to the United Nations, Your Excellency. Ardchoille applauds your humanitarian concerns. I have passed your draft resolution on to our overworked Secretary for Situations Like This for consideration and eventual comment.

__ Dicey Reilly, wrongfully President of Ardchoille.

Thank you Ardchoille, i will take note of that! =D

IC:

*blush*
I do hope that comments do run in quickly for drafting this resolution as it is only for the best of everyone that we work together hand in hand and progressive as a United Nation.



Julin Clarkson
Ambassador of The Republic of Morulcrow to UN
Member of the Parliament of Morulcrow

Welcome to the United Nations, Ambassador Clarkson. We will attempt to be gentle in our initial comments on your proposal, but we should make you aware before we start that we are nationally somewhat biased against Free Trade resolutions. Bearing that in mind, let us leap into the details!

[CENTER]RECONGISING the increasing economy gap between the first class countries and developing countries,
To be picky for a moment, we understand that many commonly used spellcheckers omit to check words that are entirely capitalised, and so will not point out typographical accidents such as "RECONGISING" above.

NOTING that there is lack of significant global effort to help out other member to develop economically,

CONVINCED that helping each other to develop economically is the only way for every country to improve their citizens’ standard of living,

SEEKING to close up the economical gap and progress together as a United Nation,
We heartily applaud these aims, but are of the opinion that Free Trade resolutions (being defined as resolutions which reduce barriers to trade) very rarely works towards them. We therefore read on with considerable curiosity.

HEREBY:

Suggest formation of Department of Trade and Development and headed by a Secretary-General and a panel of 10 eminent persons, knowledgeable of development issues and with international standing in the field.
We would recommend a more definite verb than "Suggest" here, as it makes the formation of the Department appear somewhat optional.

Mention of a "Secretary-General" is potentially contentious; the UN's rules on formation of committees (which in effect this is) require that they be populated with politically independent experts, partly to avoid any suggestion of individual nations having undue power and influence through political representatives, and partly to avoid the need to be specific. Personally we think that this would be legal, but some nations may be a little twitchy at the wording.

Functions
3 key functions of the Department of Trade and Development are

1) A forum for intergovernmental deliberation, supported by discussions with experts and experience sharing, aimed at consensus building.
2) Undertakes research, policy analysis and data collection for the debates of government representatives and experts.
3) Provides technical assistance tailored to the specific requirements of developing countries, with special attention to the needs of the least developed countries and of economies in transition.
Again, being unnecessarily picky we observe that the wording of functions 2 and 3 are grammatically inconsistent with the phrase they are notionally a continuation of.

That said, we are somewhat confused as to what the department is intended to do per se. The forum aspect is clear enough, though a strange purpose for a department and one we are not entirely convinced is consonant with the normal operations of a UN subsection. A more usual and less contentious way of phrasing that would be to empower the department to liaise with national govenments to provide the fruits of its research function, share best practice, and so on.

The scope of the research function is not clear at this point. Are we to assume that it refers to the commissions following?

The scope of the technical assistance is also unclear, but would presumably be clarified with an answer to the above. We are a little more concerned that this seems to be offering a free lunch, unless we have misunderstood the nature of tailored technical assistance (which is entirely possible), and it must be understood that the UN's coffers are not up to many free lunches. Which reminds us...

::Ambassador Prince Rhodri walks over to a barrel near the door labelled "Fine Yeldan Pickles (TM)" and drops a cheque into it.::

We apologise to all and sundry for failing to deliver this donation earlier. It amounts to approximately half the financial assessment suggested in the last attempt to fund the UN by resolution. We expect the rest to follow as soon as the budget review has concluded.


Commissions
The Panel of 10 eminent persons will overlook 5 Commissions:

1) Trade and commodities
2) Investment and enterprise development
3) Macroeconomic policies, debt and development financing
4) Transport, customs and information technology
5) Science and technology
We are not entirely certain what this is intended to mean, and become more confused as to what the department -- which now appears to sprawl over all non-military aspects of government -- is intended to do. We suspect that this may be attempting to gather too sweeping a remit to make a useful organisation, but would like to hear the author clarify his intent before expressing any more definite opinion.

Trade and Development Conferences

Quadrennial conferences to be held, at which assessments of current trade and development issues, discuss policy options and formulate global policy responses. The conference also sets the organization’s mandate and work priorities.


Annual conferences to be held, at which the panel addresses policy issues in specific areas. The conference also allows the panel to provide guidance for the work of the secretariat.

Experts meetings are held up to 10 every year where specialised experts of specific fields will gather for discussions. Such discussions allow government representatives to take advantage of valuable technical input from academics, practitioners and the private sector.
While this is doubtless worthy stuff, we wonder if the author is being too prescriptive here. Would it perhaps be more appropriate to authorise the department to organise Trade and Development conferences without becoming too detailed as to their nature? Some existing resolutions have taken this path, and it seems appropriate to us.

Overall, we are a little too uncertain as to exactly what is being proposed to be able to express an opinion for or against, or indeed whether the proposal is currently in the correct category. We thank the ambassador for bringing this draft forward all the same, and look forward to further debate with him and the mutual removal of uncertainty.

*blush*

Ambassador Prince Rhodri, thank you for you in-depth and valuable comments on the draft. I have already made some changes and hope that ambassadors of United Nations will kindly bring up their views too.


Julin Clarkson
Ambassador of The Republic of Morulcrow to UN
Member of the Parliament of Morulcrow