UN General Assembly
1977

32. The economic pattern of the developing countries, which, as we know, are mainly dependent on the production and export of primary goods and raw materials, is responsible to a great extent for their disadvantageous position in the world economy. The restructuring of the world economic order, by consolidating the position of countries producing raw materials and primary goods, was the main subject of the fourth session of UNCTAD, held in Nairobi last year. The Nairobi session indeed took a major step forward in the field of international economic policy by endorsing the concept of an Integrated Programme for Commodities and by establishing an extensive framework of negotiations with regard to the problem of commodities. We are pleased to note that the negotiations are taking place, not on an isolated, fragmented or piecemeal basis as was the case in the past, but as part of a single exercise, subject to a well-defined time frame.