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agreed upon.

The lack of action by developed countries to tackle the commodity problem of the developing countries is particularly apparent in the following areas:

(1) Non-implementation of the provisions of the Inter-
national Development Strategy for the Second United
Nations Development Decade concerning world trade in
commodities, and concerning the reduction and
elimination of duties and other barriers to imports
of primary products, including those in processed
and semi-processed form, of export interest to
developing countries;

(2) Failure of the international community to establish
comprehensive international arrangements on most

individual commodities owing to the intransigence of
developed countries;

(3) Non-implementation of resolutions adopted in UNCTAD and
other forums with respect to pricing policy and access
to markets and the increasing trend towards
protectionism in developed countries;

(4) Failure of the recent round of intensive intergovernmental
consultations on individual commodities, pursuant to
resolution 83 (III) of the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development and resolution 7 (VII) of the
UNCTAD Committee on Commodities, to achieve concrete
results.

(5) Long delay in the commencement of the multilateral trade
negotiations and in the implementation of the provisions
of the Tokyo Declaration, which referred inter alia to
(1) the need to secure additional benefits for the
international trade of developing countries so as to
achieve a substantial increase in their foreign exchange
earnings, the diversification of their exports, and the
acceleration of the growth of their trade, and (ii)
the need to treat tropical products as a special and
priority sector;

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18. To this must be added the anarchical exploitation by the multinational corporations and the misuse and squandering of non-renewable raw materials by the developed countries, which. constitute a threat to the indispensable conservation of the natural resources needed for promoting development and satisfying in the long term the real needs of mankind as a whole. At the same time the food deficit in the developing countries, caused by the economic policies pursued by the developed countries, which aggravate the dependent position and accentuate the external disequilibrium and under-development of the developing countries, makes it essential that the developed countries make an effective contribution to the long-term solution of the world food problem.

The developed countries should undertake action to alleviate the position of the deficit developing countries, making both food supplies and also adequate technical and financial aid available to them, the latter being directed in particular to developing countries enjoying comparative advantages so that they may expand as far as possible their local production of food. This action must however in no way hamper the production and exports of developing countries which are traditional exporters of food.

19. Given this lack of adequate action by the international community owing to the lack of political will on the part of developed countries, there is an urgent need for the developing countries to change their traditional approach to negotiations with the developed countries, hitherto consisting in the presentation of a list of requests to the developed countries and an appeal to their political good will, which in reality was seldom forthcoming. To achieve this change, the developing countries must undertake common action to strengthen their bargaining position in relation to the developed countries. It is more imperative than ever for the developing countries to take practical steps to strengthen economic co-operation among themselves on the lines of the Programme of Action adopted by the Fourth Summit Conference of Non-Aligned Countries in September 1973

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and to agree on a common strategy and on specific lines of action in the field of raw materials and other primary commodities, based on the principle of relying first and foremost on themselves and their own resources to obtain the means for their own development and to establish a new international economic order.

20.

The causes of the current economic crisis are rooted in the colonial past of many developing countries, characterized by centuries of uninhibited exploitation of their natural resources. Although colonialism is disappearing, economic exploitation of the developing countries by the developed countries continues to be a major obstacle to the even and balanced development of all countries. The developing countries, which have 70 per cent of the world's population, generate only 30 per cent of the world's income, and the gap between the developed and the developing countries continues to widen.

21.

Moreover, some peoples, still victims of direct colonialism or racism, are deprived of their fundamental rights to sovereignty and independence and any possibility of development. On the other hand, many countries are still subject to imperialist domination and neo-colonialist exploitation, which constitute a reality and a serious obstacle to their independence. 22. The inequities and weaknesses of the present economic system are particularly glaring in the conduct of world trade in raw materials. Those who control the levers of the price mechanism have successfully denied to the producers of a number of raw materials their due profit from their labour and from their natural endowment, while they have themselves continued to make excessive profits by charging high prices for the finished products.

23. The prevailing economic order, and the international division of labour on which it depends, have been based essentially on the exploitation and processing by industrialized countries of the raw materials produced by developing countries

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and on the enjoyment of the value added which determines both the final overall price and the unfair terms of trade resulting therefrom. To these must be added the further profits accruing from the processes of marketing, financing, freight and insurance. 24. Consequently, the only possibility of correcting this economic order and such a division of labour lies essentially in transferring to the developing countries the job of processing the raw materials they produce in their own national territories, so that they may be able to derive maximum benefit from their potential wealth and improve their real terms of trade with developed countries.

25. For this reason, when the developing countries meet at Algiers from the the 15th to 18th February 1975 for the Ministerial Conference of the Group of 77, they will have to decide on concerted action and follow the same line if they are to acquire a larger share in world industrial output by processing and upgrading their raw materials within their own frontiers and by this means helping to establish new forms of international industrial co-operation.

26. That is why the Algiers Ministerial Conference marks a decisive step forward for developing countries in the preparation for the Second General Conference of UNIDO which is to be held at Lima from the 12th to the 26th March, and during which a Declaration will be made and a plan of action for industrialization adopted by the international community in line with the principles for the establishment of a new international economic order.

27. Recent events have shown that traditional ideas about international trade conflict with reality, for they are based on an increasingly outmoded conception of international specialization. This conception is simply that trade relations depend on factors with which the various countries participating in international trade are endowed. Based as it is on a false assumption, it disregards some essential features of present-day economic reality.

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28.

These events have thrust into prominence the reality of interdependence of all members of the international community and have made it clear that a few developed countries can no longer decide the community's fate. This realization led to the convening of a special session of the General Assembly devoted exclusively to the problems of raw materials and development, and to the adoption of the historic Declaration and Programme of Action on the establishment of a new international economic order, whose provisions must be implemented as a matter of urgency.

The Sixth Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on raw materials and development has set in motion an irreversible process in international relations and made it possible to reaffirm the intention of developing countries to engage in dialogue, to concert policies and to co-operate in order to establish new economic relations between Members of the international community. This necessary shift in international relations obliges developed countries to take full cognisance of economic and political facts in the world today and to accept precise commitments to assume their responsibilities within the framework of the inevitable alterations which must be made for the establishment of a new international economic order. 29. Considering that there is now a general tendency among developing countries to mobilise and more rationally exploit their natural resources, these countries undertake to advance along the road towards the complete eradication of their economic dependence on imperialism, to develop their economies, their science and their technology, to achieve prosperity in their countries, to systematically improve the lives of their people, to achieve complete economic independence, social justice and political sovereignty and to eliminate inequalities between nations in international relations, and so to establish a new international economic order.