UN General Assembly
1988

"While in international relations we are witnessing the beginning of different regional breakthroughs, we notice the continued deterioration of the economic situations of the developing countries, in spite of some positive signs witnessed recently in international economic relations. The Industrialized States have been able to realize a greater amount of co-ordination between their economic policies, a fact which has allowed a relative stability in the exchange rate of the major currencies as well as the achievement of healthy rates in economic growth, while the economic circumstances in many developing countries have continued to deteriorate as a result of a continuous decrease in the prices of their primary commodities and an increase in the price of their imports of manufactured goods, as well as an increase in their debt burdens in a way which seriously threatens the course of their development. "It was hoped, at the commencement of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations, that the terms of international trade would be corrected, that the protectionist tendencies would be reversed and that the trend towards freeing world trade in a meaningful way would be reaffirmed. But so far no tangible action on the part of the industrialized States has been forthcoming to eliminate the barriers which they have established on their imports from developing States. It is clear that some industrialized States are seeking to deprive the developing countries of many of the trade preferences required by their development circumstances.