North-South Dialogue

It refers to multilateral consultations carried out between developing countries and developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s, centering on mutual relations, especially major issues involving their respective basic interests and the international economic order. As developing countries are mostly located in the southern hemisphere, and developed countries are mostly located in the northern hemisphere, it is called “North-South dialogue”. After World War II, the colonial system collapsed and a large number of Asian, African and Latin American countries gained independence. The unfair and unreasonable international economic order established by developed countries by virtue of their own economic and technological advantages still constrains developing countries and seriously hinders their economic development. Developing countries put forward to establish a new international economic order through North-South dialogue in the mid-1960s.

In October 1973, the Arab oil-producing countries in the Middle East used petroleum weapons to launch the first challenge to the existing international economic order, which greatly improved their position in the international economy. The developed countries encountered the first energy crisis. At the initiative of French President D’Estaing, in December 1975, 19 developing countries including Cameroon, Algeria, Yugoslavia, and 8 developed countries and groups of countries including the United States, EC, Japan, Canada, Australia, and Spain held the First Conference on International Economic Cooperation in Paris. This is the first global North-South dialogue. The Second Conference on International Economic Cooperation was held in May 1977. As major developed countries fiercely competed for safeguarding their own interests, these two dialogues failed to achieve the expected results. But the two sides agreed to transfer the dialogue within the UN framework.

In the 1980s, developing countries put forward a "package solution" in the North-South dialogue. Its main contents are as follows: requiring developed countries to meet the target set by the United Nations for official development assistance to account for 0.7% of their GDP as soon as possible; requiring the international community to take effective multilateral action to reduce the debts of developing countries, especially the least developed countries; requiring developed countries to open their markets and cancel trade protectionism; requiring developed countries to end their monopoly on international technology markets and stop using intellectual property rights to exert pressure on developing countries; jointly responding to environmental crises and recognizing the right to development of developing countries; and increasing the weight of developing countries' voting power in international financial institutions. The economies of developing countries generally encountered serious difficulties in the 1980s, their negotiating position in the North-South dialogue was severely weakened, and the “package solution” was not responded by developed countries. The Eleventh Special Session of the UN General Assembly held in 1980 discussed the procedure and agenda of global negotiations concerning international economic cooperation but failed to reach agreement.

On October 22, 1981, the heads of 8 developed countries and 14 developing countries, including China, held the North-South Summit in Cancun, Mexico, and consulted on adjusting North-South economic relations and resuming global North-South dialogue. Due to obstruction by the United States, the Cancun Meeting failed to achieve practical results, and the global North-South dialogue came to a halt. Since the end of the 1980s, in the context of Cold War ceasing to exist and rapid development of economic globalization, both developed and developing countries have adjusted their positions in the North-South dialogue, and the North-South economic relationship has begun to shift from a stalemate status to mutual compromise, with certain degree of progress being achieved, and several North-South cooperative regional economic organizations have emerged, such as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (ASEAN).

And since the late 1980s, two new development trends—as depicited below—have led to the complete withdrawal of the North-South dialogue from the stage of history.

Firstly, the internal differentiation of features and interests among the developing countries, mainly the appearance of a group of emerging economies which are developing faster, consequently the interests of developing countries which face the task of handling North-South dialogue and conflicts have become more diverse. Secondly, important trend is the prevalence of neo-liberalism in many developing countries and market-oriented economic reforms have become common. The traditional forms of North-South relationship has become history, while the unfair international order still exists, consequently the ultimate solution to North-South question is a long way off.