UN General Assembly
1982

exchange rates are unstable and the level of investments is very low. These conditions cause havoc among the poorer nations. Added to this, cruel protective trade barriers deny us a market for our products. The costs of servicing external debts keep soaring, and speculation runs rampant and uncontrolled in the financial markets. 230. In the face of all this, is it any wonder then that the economic struggle for poor countries like Belize is one of sheer survival? 231. The richer, developed and industrialized countries are not encouraging the development of the exports of the developing countries, by their refusal to pay just prices for our commodities, which in the long run would lead to a healthy expansion of international trade for the benefit of all. Instead, they prefer to finance the imports of the third world with loans on exorbitant terms. We are now reaping the bitter harvest of this unenlightened policy. 232. Many third world countries had a higher rate of growth, but it was artificial, because it resulted in an unprecedented increase in their