Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993 TAG: 9309290036
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and World Bank President Lewis Preston noted that this year's meetings of their organizations were occurring against a backdrop of extremely sluggish world growth.
Japan and Germany, the world's second- and third-largest economies, are mired in their worst recessions in decades, while the United States is still struggling to shake off a prolonged period of sluggishness.
Camdessus said unemployment in the industrialized world would hit a record 32 million this year, 3 million higher than the last severe recession a decade ago. He said this development was fueling protectionist trade barriers as country after country fought to protect its shrinking manufacturing sector.
"Recession not only increases human deprivation, but also intensifies protectionist pressures and injects a virus that can be deadly into even the best-established instruments of economic cooperation," he said.
While critics have attacked the IMF and World Bank for responding too slowly to help the emerging democracies, Preston contended his agency was prepared to respond rapidly to peaceful change, not only in Russia, but also in the Middle East, South Africa and Vietnam.
Both Camdessus and Preston made strong appeals for swift conclusion of the Uruguay Round of global free-trade talks being conducted by 116 nations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
"Perhaps no single policy action would be more effective in improving global growth prospects than the successful conclusion of the round by the end of this year," Preston said.
But prospects for the seven-year effort to lower trade barriers were dimmed Monday when the United States and the 12-nation European Community failed to resolve sharp differences over the reduction of farm subsidies.
by CNB