Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXXVIII, International Economic Development; International Debt; Foreign Assistance

80. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan¹

Washington, December 27, 1981

SUBJECT

• No UN Decision on Global Negotiations

The UN General Assembly adjourned Friday night² without acting on the draft resolution to launch Global Negotiations (GNs) in 1982. Although the Group of 77 Spokesman blamed the U.S. for intransigence, the Group itself could not agree on a united response to the U.S. amendments decided December 8 by the NSC.³

The European Community tried to position itself politically between the U.S. and the G–77 by proposing a compromise, but this attempt failed for lack of G–77 support. Austria, Australia, Japan, and a few other countries appreciated our willingness to commit the U.S. to a new GNs process and urged members of the G–77 to accept the U.S. amendments.

Algeria, Venezuela, the Philippines, and some others might have taken our amendments, but many G–77 members objected to U.S. language on “noting” resolution 34/138 and on the protection of the specialized agencies. Iraq, Libya, and Cuba were especially hostile. We have no evidence that any of the Cancun heads of state from developing countries acted to bring about a favorable G–77 decision.

Comment: Responding to the proposed resolution with constructive amendments prevented U.S. isolation and the onus of preventing progress on GNs. But the issue remains. A Vice-President of the UNGA is expected to continue consultations in January, and there could well be another push for a resolution at a resumed session of the UNGA.

One way of attempting to preempt an undesirable form of GNs, preserve the spirit of Cancun, and fulfill the four essential understandings you presented there may be to make a proposal of our own. The State Department has already circulated such an idea to other U.S. agencies for comment.⁴ Although preliminary, the idea would be for a UN Conference on Global Growth and Development in 1983, preceded by four planning conferences in 1982 on the four subject areas of Cancun: Food and agriculture, energy, trade and commodities, money and finance. The planning conferences would be held out of New York in association with the specialized agencies to increase staff expertise and to reduce the politically charged atmosphere.

Assuming interagency agreement, we could begin multilateral consultations in the OECD on January 12–13.⁵

1. Source: Department of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, Office of International Finance and Development Files, Lot 86D112: North/South Global Negotiations. Confidential. The date “’81 Dec 28” is stamped at the top of the memorandum. The memorandum was sent under a December 21 covering memorandum from Johnston and Platt to Haig for his initials.
2. December 18.
3. See Document 79.
4. Not further identified.
5. Below this sentence, Haig wrote: “Mr. President, your good sense prevented a catastrophe on this issue. I do hope this coming year will permit us to continue this play without excess direction from those who indulge in theology exclusively. We can and should manage this problem intelligently!! Al.”