UN General Assembly
1979

52. The developing countries must bear in mind that in the industrialized countries day-to-day political realities influencing or even determining government actions tend to place immediate domestic concerns ahead of commitments to the developing countries. In the long run however, we seriously doubt whether this attitude will help to solve the problems now facing the industrialized countries, as it negates the interdependence and the mutuality of interest of both groups of nations. In this respect, we fully agree with the President of the World Bank, who at the UNCTAD session said that trade protectionism is rarely the right instrument to safeguard income and employment levels. More often it only succeeds in converting potential short-term private costs into long-term social losses.