UN calls for overhaul of world trade system

The real reason behind this week’s meetings. Photo: MCB

New measures are needed to raise and distribute $2.5 trillion a year to developing countries, says a new UN report, released alongside this week’s climate meeting in New York.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

A blueprint to reset the world economy and trade system is set out in a new UN report, calling for mass state intervention similar to depression-era New Deal policies of post-WWII economies.

The report says a ‘global green deal’ is the right policy framework to make break with years of austerity and insecurity after the 2008 financial crisis, to help bring about “more equal distribution of income and reversed environmental degradation”.

Meeting the demands of the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 would require rebuilding multilateralism and “pursuing a financial future very different from the recent past”, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

The UN report comes amid calls for a new summit with leaders from China, the EU and the US, to reshape multilateralism and replace the current economic order.

The measures include new controls on the movement of money, demanding more from developed nations, targeting sovereign wealth funds and setting a world minimum tax rate for multinationals.

Former Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Sharan Burrow supported the move at a conference held on the sidelines of this week’s UN climate summit:

“If our multilateral structures are failing us and they don’t reform, then we are going to have to re-create some of the basis on which the world does business”.

Outgoing UN renewable energy official Rachel Kyte said a new economic order was needed to reshape multilateralism and align all public investments with climate action.

The UN’s push for a new era of global intervention is part of the sustainable development agenda supported by all governments in 2015.

The Australian government has been hard at work in conjunction with the United Nations to continue to push this agenda in a number of practical ways.

AGENDA 2030

This week, the UN called for a new generation of trade and investment agreements to support these policies, along with changes to intellectual property and licensing laws.

This includes China and India highlighted the issue as crucial to them taking action at this week’s meeting in New York called by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Climate finance has been a key stumbling block over decades of UN talks on climate change.

In September 2015, 193 Member States of the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Agenda 2030 will change our economies, our environment and our societies, and will change old mindsets, behaviours and patterns forever.

Included in the document are Sustainable Development Goals and 169 individual targets, adopted by world leaders in at an historic UN Summit, objectives expected to guide the actions of the international community over a 15-year period (2016-2030).

Australian government coordination on implementation of the 2030 Agenda is led by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), in collaboration with individual departments for each individual SDG.

Many sustainable development targets, such as energy and water, health and wellbeing, gender equality, climate change, resource distribution and more, have already seen many organisations introduce policies and procedures to align with intended goals.

To track progress, the Australian government has an official Reporting Platform on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators, designed to provide a single point of access for anyone interested in government data on the SDG Indicators.

The UN is now openly calling for an overhaul of world financial systems to deliver on the plan.

AUSTRALIA AND THE UN

Since the beginning of the United Nations, Australia has strongly promoted international policies and reforms across a broad range of issues, interlinking an integrated model that is marching towards a system of world governance.

The first complete forerunner of the United Nations was the League of Nations and Australia benefited greatly from organisation, including establishing the Australian League of Nations Union (ALNU), an organisation that would reshape the country’s image into international diplomacy.

Australia was a founding member of the United Nations and has been actively engaged in the organisation since its formation, with individuals such as Herbert ‘Doc’ Evatt working extensively on the development of both the UN and key moments like the formation of Israel.

Evatt went on to become the third President of the UN General Assembly from 1948 to 1949, and during his tenure, he was instrumental in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

According to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs, since 1945, Australian foreign policy has been informed by the underlying principles and purposes of the United Nations.

Today, the UN is regarded by the government as the world’s pre-eminent conflict resolution body, as an essential forum for world cooperation, and as the mechanism for responding to transnational challenges to human and international security.

During the 20th century, as a new era of globalism emerged, the UN began incrementally bypassing nation states to enact a number of trade deals and international pacts.

This includes the Lima Declaration, which had massive implications for domestic industries such as manufacturing and laboring, which began closing business or moving offshore as a result.

This call for a “brave new financial order” has been labelled the continuation of such trade deals that erode national sovereignty and the final phase of the UN’s takeover of Australian society.

They say our citizens, national interests and major industries have been sold out to a corporate-fascist agenda that is unfolding right before our eyes.