UN: Poor countries become failed states and failed states become havens for terrorists, who use them as a base to attack the international community. Therefore the answer to terrorism does not lie in security measures alone but in tackling poverty in the developing world, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
This is the essential message of Prof Rubens Ricupero, the Brazilian-born secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), who visited Dublin this week.
Unctad is the arm of the UN that deals with trade and development. "We also work very much with investment promotion for developing countries," he says. "We try to use trade as an instrument for development." It differs from the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which exists to negotiate trade agreements and rules and to settle trade disputes.
The UN trade body, for its part, focuses "more and more" on the 49 least-developed countries in the world - 34 of them in Africa - where the average income is between one and two dollars a day. Afghanistan is top of the list, or bottom if you prefer: a failed state which became a haven for international terrorists.
He feels there has been an over-emphasis on trade issues: "Trade negotiations have received enough attention and have been oversold as a sort of universal panacea." For a country to take full advantage of export opportunities, it needs to provide a range of quality goods and services at competitive prices. But many developing countries are dependent on just a few products, e.g., coffee, cocoa, petroleum.
Unctad has a long history of co-operation with this country and Prof Ricupero praises Ireland's success in attracting foreign direct investment with tax breaks and other incentives.
The UN trade body holds a major policy-making conference every four years and the next one is scheduled for Sao Paulo, Brazil, for six days from June 13th.
Efforts to reach international agreement on trade issues were "paralysed" after the failure of negotiations at the WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, last September. "We hope this conference might play a positive role in helping trade negotiations to be brought back on track," he says. "There is now the feeling that, after a very pessimistic period after Cancun, some positive signs are appearing." On the question of agricultural subsidies, he does not necessarily see a contradiction between the interests of small farmers in places like Ireland and the people of the developing world. He cites OECD data to show that 80 per cent of total subsidies go to "very large agribusiness companies" and only 20 per cent to small farmers.
"The problem is to design the protection policies in such a way that they will not be used to support the 'barons'." Cotton producers in the US receive billions of dollars a year in subsidies, making it very difficult for poor cotton-producing countries like Benin, Mali and Burkina Faso to compete. Those African states, he points out, "are among the poorest countries in the world".
He notes that, in the current fiscal year, the US military budget is $450 billion compared with only $10 billion for overseas development aid. "You are not going to persuade people to show solidarity with you in fighting terrorism, if you do not show the same solidarity with them in fighting poverty."