Talk about any UN Conference developments!

CUDDY: You have to meet all of them. According to the Chairman of the Committee which deals with these things, Patrick Guimant (?), Ghana either has, or is on the verge of, meeting all those criteria, and therefore would become eligible for the group. As in the case of Senegal, I suppose the government will debate whether it wishes to join it or not.

EKB:My main query is that Ghana has been one of the countries that has seemed to improve not only its living conditions -- there are so many problems at the moment, but surely, with the elections that took place recently, the social stability has to be taken into question. In terms of democracy and social stability, Ghana does have that, so I was just wondering that isn't there a risk that once you start categorizing, once you start saying these particular countries fit this particular criteria, won't that start causing problems? As you said already with the G77 countries, they're having a problem that has caused a furore, because they feel that there'll be special preferences for the LDCs over so-called developing countries. As soon as they reach a particular categorary, do you not think there's a risk they'll be dumped straight into the dustbin of LDCs. Do you not think it's a problem?

CUDDY: I don't want to comment on a specific case of Ghana, which has had until quite recently, held up as an example of a successful country. But I think that the situation is purely an objective one ofcourse. The government can choose whether or not it wishes to join the group, and it will do that on the basis of a rather hard-headed calculation about the potential advantages it would receive from that. So, depending upon that decision, it will join, or will not join once its reached the objective criteria. That, I don't think puts it as a "basket case". Henry Kissinger famously -- or infamously -- in 1976, spoke of Bangladesh as a "basket case". Now, Bangladesh is rather successful nowadays, though its still in the LDC. So I think that all these things are relative . But what is the concern of some of the developing countries is that trade initiatives may help to put countries in a better position.

©Interview by E.K.Bensah, ICDA Secretariat, 2001

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