The Lima Declaration

The Second General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (U.N.I.D.O.) met in Lima, Peru, during the period March 1 2-26. 1 975, this resulting in a declaration which has provided the blueprint for what has subsequently happened to Australian industry. The basic reasoning behind the declaration was that the drastic plight of the Third World was the result of the rapacious policies of the advanced industrial nations, Australia listed as one of these. The only way to rectify the situation was to transfer industrial resources from the advanced to the Third World, and then to provide markets for Third World exports, buying products once produced locally.

The Fraser Government took over where the Whitlam Government left off, with Malcolm Fraser extolling the virtues of the programme under the guise of "The North-South Dialogue". The Hawke-Keating Government has increased the tempo of the programme, Hawke, Keating, Button and other senior ministers frankly telling Australians theyare working to INTERNATIONALISE the Australian economy.

MORE THAN HALF OF AUSTRALIA'S MANUFACTURING CAPACITY HAS BEEN DESTROYED SINCE 1974. And thedestruction continues, while Australian imports vast quantities of goods once produced locally.

In 1970 there were approximately 300,000 farmers. THERE ARE NOW ONLY 125,000, WITH THOUSANDS MORE DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION UNDER THE HAWKE-KEATING STRATEGY.

The following are tile main recommendations of The Lima Declaration:

(35) "That special attention should be given to the least developed countries, which should enjoy a net transfer of resources from tile developed countries in tile form of technical and financial resources as well as capital goods, to enable the least developed countries in conformity with the policies and plans for development, to accelerate their industrialisation;"

(41) "That the developed countries should adhere strictly to the principle that the Generalised System of Preferences must not be used as an instrument for economic and political pressure to hamper the activities of those developing countries which produce raw materials;"

(43) "That the developing countries should fully and effectively participate in the international decision-making process on international monetary questions in accordance with the existing and evolving rules of the competent bodies and share equitably in the benefits resulting therefrom;"

(52) "That developing countries should devote particular attention to the development of basic industries such as steel, chemicals, petrochemicals and engineering, thereby consolidating their economic independence while at the same time assuring an effective form of import substitution and a greater share of world trade;" 
In order to achieve the above recommendations, The Lima Declaration advocated the following Plan of Action:

(59) The developed countries should adopt the following measures:

(a) Progressive elimination or reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers, and other obstacles of trade, taking into account the special characteristics of the trade of the developing countries, with a view to improving the international framework of the conduct of world trade...

(b) Adoption of trade measures designed to ensure increased exports of manufactured and semi manufactured products including processed agricultural products from the developing to the developed countries;

(c) Facilitate development of new and strengthen existing policies, taking into account their economic structure and economic, social and security objectives, which would encourage their industries which are less competitive internationally to move progressively into more viable lines of production or into other sectors of the economy, thus leading to structural adjustments within the developed countries, and redevelopment of the productive capacities of such industries to developing countries and promotion of a higher degree of utilisation of natural resources and people in the latter;

(d) Consideration by the developed countries of their policies with respect to processed and semi-processed forms of 'raw materials, taking full account of the interests of the developing countries in increasing their capacities and industrial potentials for processing raw materials which they export;

(e) Increased financial contributions to international organisations and to government orcredit institutions in the developing countries in order to facilitate the promotion of financing of industrial development. Such contributions must be completely free of any kind of political conditions and should involve no economic conditions other than those normally imposed on borrowers.

To Section (e) was added the following rider: "Urgent consideration of the question of re-scheduling of debt servicing of long-outstanding debts, their conversion, if possible, into grants and granting favourable treatment to the industrial and financial requirement of the developing countries most seriously affected by tile present economic crisis..."