Commodity Agreements: Aid or Trade?
| Published date | 01 December 1974 |
| Date | 01 December 1974 |
| Author | P.T. Bauer |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207402900406 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
P.T. BAUER
Commodity
agreements:
aid
or
trade?
Concerted
action,
supported
by
western
countries,
to raise
the
prices
of
primary
products
exported
by
less
developed
countries
(LDcS)
to
serve
as
a
form
of
foreign
aid
has
been
widely
and in-
fluentially
canvassed
for
more
than
a
decade.
It
was
emphatically
supported
at
the various
United
Nations
Conferences
on
Trade
and
Development
(UNCTAD),
and
also
in
the
(Pearson)
Report
of
the
Commission
on
International
Development.
The
spectacular
success
of the
Organization
of
Petroleum
Exporting
Countries
(oPEc)
in
raising
the price
of
oil
in
1972
and
even
more
in
1973
has
supplied
further
impetus
to
these
proposals,
which
on various
grounds
can
be
expected
to
remain
on
the
agenda.
The
advocacy
of
foreign
aid
will
continue,
and
commodity agreements
repre-
sent
a
transfer
of
resources
to
LDCS
which
bypasses
the
budgetary
process.
Again,
the
prices
of
primary
products
are likely
to con-
tinue
to
fluctuate widely,
which
lends
plausibility
to demands
for
such
agreements.
And
the
transfer
of
resources
by
means of
com-
modity
agreements
can
be
described
with
superficial
plausibility
as
trade
rather
than
aid,
which
is
politically
attractive.
Finally,
commodity
agreements
serve
influential
interests,
both
in
LDcs
and
in
the
West.
Yet
there
are
serious
objections
to
these
agreements
as
a
form
of
foreign aid.
Few
of even
the
major
objections
are
noted
in
public
debate
and
some
are
overlooked
even
in
more technical
discussions.
In
this
article
I
shall
examine
some
of
these
objections.
Professor
of
Economics,
London
School of
Economics
and
Political
Science;
Fellow
of
Gonville
and
Caius
College,
Cambridge.
Author
of
a
number
of
books
and
articles,
mainly
in
development
economics,
including Dissent
on
Development:
Studies
and
Debates
in
Development
Economics
(1972).
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