UN General Assembly
1982

144. In view of this situation, we must stress that the world economic order must be reformed, in a spirit of co-operation and with complete international solidarity. While recognizing that the present world political climate may not be the most propitious for beginning such an exercise, we believe that the cost of maintaining the present situation would exceed that of initiating global negotiations, even in conditions which, in our view, are not the most desirable from the point of view of the developing countries. 145. The international community has a duty to study solutions within the existing institutions in order to facilitate the efforts and possible modifications that should be made by developing countries deeply affected by the international crisis, a phenomenon not foreign to the Latin American region. 146. In the mean time my Government has well- founded hopes that the forthcoming ministerial meeting of GATT will achieveconcrete steps towards liber¬alizing international trade, and putting an end to existing protectionist measures which, we are certain, can only contribute to further aggravation of current difficulties.