A Common Fund to Finance International Commodity Agreements

The author outlines the framework for the negotiations of a Common Fund for the financing of commodity stocks pursuant to the Integrated Programme for Commodities established by UNCTAD in 1976. The author summarizes the progress of negotiations to present and analyzes the complex issues yet to be resolved. After examining the need for and the objectives of a Common Fund, the author outlines the detailed operational and structural components required for a successful Fund. Prospects for agreement on the establishment of a Common Fund, in this author’s view, depend upon the willingness of developed and developing nations to negotiate a compromise on several critical issues: whether the Fund should serve as a source of new financing or a mere pooling of funds held by existing international commodity agreements; whether the Fund should finance commodity measures other than stocking; and whether the distribution of voting control should favor the producing or the consuming nations.