Increasing North - South trade

Description

Strengthening trade between industrialized Northern countries and developing Southern countries by removing unfair barriers, improving market access, diversifying exports, and supporting equitable trade agreements. The strategy aims to increase Southern countries’ productive capacity, value-added industries, infrastructure and negotiating power, while addressing commodity dependence, protectionism, trade imbalances and exploitative practices. It promotes trade flows that generate employment, public revenue, technology transfer and sustainable development rather than reinforcing dependency.

Context

Concerns about increasing North–South trade gained prominence during UNCTAD’s establishment in 1964, when developing countries argued that prevailing trade patterns disadvantaged primary-commodity exporters. The issue became central to debates on the New International Economic Order in the 1970s and later informed the Uruguay Round, WTO discussions and preferential schemes such as the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences. Since the 1990s, attention has increasingly encompassed market access, value addition, trade finance and the integration of developing economies into global value chains.

Claim

Increasing North–South trade is not merely beneficial—it is an essential strategy for global progress. It can expand markets, create jobs, transfer technology, and reduce poverty across developing nations while supplying developed economies with vital resources and new opportunities. Governments must remove unfair barriers, invest in infrastructure, and establish equitable agreements. Delaying action perpetuates inequality; strengthening North–South trade is a practical, urgent path toward shared prosperity and a more stable world.

Counter-claim

North-South divisions over GMOs get to the heart of the South fears and suspicions over the power and presence of multinational firms in trade policy negotiations, and the ramifications for food security and developing countries' pharmaceutical sectors.