UN General Assembly
1967

141. In various national and international organizations, work is going on in these fields and it should, in the view of the Australian Government, be pushed forward with urgency. I am happy to state that in one of them — preferences in favour of developing countries — Australia, by arrangement with GATT, has instituted a scheme of such preferences unilaterally. But although we have an admittedly high standard of living, we are ourselves in many ways in the same vulnerable position as the developing countries, because 80 per cent of our export income is tied to primary exports. We therefore favour commodity agreements which would stabilize the prices of these primary exports, and would bring more in the way of development and security to developing countries than all the aid that is ever likely to be given. Assured and rising income from exports is the sure road to economic development, and I would appeal to the great industrial nations of the world to try to see the problems of economic development in this light and, particularly in North America and Western Europe, to give guaranteed access to the products of the developing countries at fair prices.