UN General Assembly
1979

101. From the economic standpoint, these fears about an economically dynamic third world are both groundless and self-defeating. But given the fact that the advanced countries had already entered a recessionary phase, this minor challenge from the third world has stimulated further protectionist tendencies. The most strident demands for protection from third-world competition have come from Western trade unions, rather than from their capitalists. The Western proletariat views the emerging third-world proletariat less as an ally and more as a foe. 102. The protectionists from the developed world are, in effect, arguing that the post-war liberal economic order established in 1944 at Bretton Woods should be dismantled. One of the main pillars of that arrangement was free trade, with provisions for the removal of tariff barriers. And the biggest proponents of this are liberals in the developed world. They are also against the Bret- ton Woods economic order.