NationStates Jolt Archive

The Developed Economic Advancement proposal has reached quorum it states:

MANDATES the following:

1) All UN nations have the authority to enact protective tariffs on foreign goods and services in order to protect their labor forces and industries, given these tariffs are not forbidden by any previous UN legislation;

AFFIRMING ... that this legislation may be invoked by individual nations which seek not to participate in future UN free trade initiatives,

As I understand it UN resolutions are not optional they have to be obeyed so no one can opt-out, invoke or ignore them. If this passes will it therefore mean the end of tariff-reducing free trade resolutions? Or is this section against UN rules?

A ruling to clear up this confusion would be most appreciated, thank you.

I don't think it's illegal. The clause 1 is banning future mandatory free trade agreements. I don't see why they included the "affirming" clause, because I don't see what it does - apart from, as you say, sound illegal - but I suppose it spells out that after this passes, tariff-reducing resolutions would have to be optional.

However, Belarum may be withdrawing this proposal, so don't worry just yet.

Which I would have been able to explain earlier if my ACCEL account still worked...sigh

Thanks Gruenberg, I didn't think it would be illegal but supporters had been going round saying it wouldn't stop free trade so I thought a ruling would have been best.

If it is being withdrawn then I suppose it clears this up :)

It's number 2 in queue, so we've got a bit of time for additional review and comment. Given that, my first take is "illegal".

The keywords here are "previous" in the first quoted phrase, and "not to participate in future" in the second. "Previous" implies that "future" resolutions need not be binding, a concept reinforced in the second quoted phrase. That breaks the Optionality rule.

It also appears to deny the right to pass an entire class of UN legislation by denying the applicablity of Free Trade proposals. That's a bit hazier, but still looks illegal to me.

The third thing, and this is personal:REFFERRING to Section I of Resolution #49 (Rights and Duties of UN States) in order to better illustrate this resolution
Section I of Rights and Duties cannot be invoked in isolation. It is modified by later Sections, all of which are necessary to encompass the intent of the Resolution. I wrote it that way rather than breaking it into three pieces for precisely this reason - if you take any part of the freedoms, you must also take the associated responsibilities. Anyone who attempts to pick and choose just the parts they like instantly loses credibility in my eyes.

If Belarum wants it withdrawn for corrections, he needs to make a request either here or via Getting Help, and soon. Failing that, he's got a very good chance of getting one of his three UN strikes for this one.

If Belarum wants it withdrawn for corrections, he needs to make a request either here or via Getting Help, and soon. Failing that, he's got a very good chance of getting one of his three UN strikes for this one.
Just checked the tasklist, and the author's deletion request was waiting for me. Removed. As a courtesy, the list of Approving delegates:
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