South-south cooperation in the contemporary economic order?
South-South cooperation seeks to strengthen economic relations
among the newly industrialized and developing economies of Africa,
Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. The objective is to reinforce and
expand the mutual benefits that can be derived from deepening, more
expansive interdependence among the countries of "the South."
Prompting the quest for greater cooperation has been the belief
that the historically fashioned global, trade, investment,
production, and financial regimes remain fundamentally biased in
favor of the economic and strategic interests of the core
capitalist states of North America, Western Europe, and East Asia.
More immediately, South-South cooperation is propelled by slow
overall growth in South-North trade, the expansion of the European
Union, and the consolidation of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) which, along with a general increase in
protectionist measures, promise even greater obstacles to
manufactured and agricultural exports from the South, growing
attacks within the framework of the World Trade Organization on
trade preferences for the South, and the conviction that the
concerns of smaller, weaker economies are being largely ignored in
this era of global economic liberalization. South-South cooperation
is seen as a way to stimulate economic growth, increase the
commonly low levels of trade among Southern economies, reduce the
dependency on Northern markets and capital, and, in general, place
the countries of the South in the position to take greater control
of their economic fortunes. Actual and potential benefits of such
cooperation include coordinated and strengthened bargaining with
potential investors, with suppliers, and within international
economic policy-making bodies. Another key benefit is the
overcoming of the political barriers to greater economic
integration and rationalization, thereby enlarging the economic
space for nascent and expanding South-based industries. The means
for realizing South-South cooperation include preferential trade
agreements, freer movement of goods, services, and people, direct
investment, development assistance, joint research and development,
the transfer of appropriate technology, food security and
agricultural development agreements, regional transportation and
communications networks, and joint negotiating positions.
The origins of South-South cooperation lie in the coming
together of the newly independent African and Asian countries and
the developing countries of Latin America in the 1950s and early
1960s to argue for basic reforms in the organization of world trade
and finance and to fashion a political stance independent of the
Cold War polarization. Notable among the early regional and
interregional conferences that laid the intellectual and political
foundations for South-South cooperation were the Afro-Asian
Conference (Bandung, Indonesia, 1955), the First Summit of
Non-Aligned Countries (Belgrade, 1961), and the Conference on
Problems of Developing Countries (Cairo, 1962). New international
institutions emerged. For example, between 1955and1964 the
Nonaligned Movement, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, the Group of 77, and the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development were established as organs for defining and
promoting political cooperation and economic development strategies
for the countries of the South. The landmark Declaration and
Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International
Economic Order, adopted at the UN Sixth Special Session in 1974,
provided the impetus for strengthened commitment to South-South
cooperation as an integral part of the effort to fundamentally
restructure global economic relations.
Inspired by the history and success of the European Union,
economic integration among neighboring states is the most prominent
feature of South-South cooperation. Subregional and regional free
trade and preferential trade associations, common markets, and lake
and river basin development associations continue to proliferate.
New cooperative arrangements are being developed and once dormant
associations are being revitalized. Among current South-South
regional economic associations are the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community
(SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA),
the Maghreb Arab Union (MAU), the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), the South Asian Preferential Trading Agreement
(SAPTA), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Latin American
Integration Association (LAIA), the Andean Common Market, the
Southern Cone Common Market (MERCUSOR), the Central American Common
Market (CACM), and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Commitments to technical and economic cooperation among the
countries of the South remain strong. For example, the United
Nations Development Programme, and the South Centre, an
intergovernmental organization established in 1994, are strong
advocates of South-South cooperation as a core mechanism for
defending the economic interests and promoting development in the
current period of global economic liberalization. It is clear,
however, that despite voiced commitments and formal agreements, the
gains of cooperation remain elusive. Notwithstanding the growth in
economic and technical relations among the countries of the South,
such cooperation has not had a marked impact on the overall
character of the international economic order. The South remains
overwhelmingly dependent on the industrialized economies of the
North for export markets, foreign investment, concessionary
finance, and technology. Increasing economic differentiation and
rivalry among the countries of the South, lukewarm popular support
for regional integration schemes, often-intense political
conflicts, and renewed efforts by competing Northern economies to
integrate regions of the developing world into their economic
spheres undermine the pursuit of substantive South-South
cooperation. There is also a clear sentiment among the states of
the South that dependent integration with the North is to be
preferred to the danger of increased marginalization in the
evolving, dynamic, global economic order. Nevertheless, South-South
cooperation remains a salient issue in the pursuit of sustainable
development, and could emerge as a more prominent feature in the
competitive struggles over the structure of the global political
economy in the twenty-first century.
