And Global Economic Cooperation.

Imagine what the world of international commerce would be like without the United Nations system or a group of comparable organizations with universal state memberships.

Imagine there were no global institutions where States could legitimize their jurisdictional rights in different areas of the planet, the atmosphere and outer space. Would there not be a great deal of uncertainty and conflict that would reduce the willingness of businesses to engage in international trade and investment?

Imagine States and firms did not agree on the definitions and measurement of national and international economic phenomena. Would firms and States not find it much more difficult to evaluate economic policies, including acceptance of international economic norms and rules?

Imagine there were no international institutions that harmonized or unified the laws applicable to international commercial transactions. Would the cost and delays of doing business not raise the cost of internationally traded goods and even discourage firms from entering some foreign markets?

Imagine there were no institutions that established technical standards that assured interconnection in international communications and transportation systems and that largely eliminated damages to international carriers and traded goods and services. Would the global economy not be severely curtailed and hence the welfare of people significantly damaged?

United Nations bodies are involved extensively in regulating the same types of economic problems at the international level that States regulate at the national level. Today, nearly a fifth of the total of global gross national product (GNP) is traded, international investment has been climbing fourfold in recent decades, and the annual value of the foreign output of transnational firms is several times that of global trade. This expansion has brought significant welfare gains for most people, but economic forces alone could not have brought about this increase in trade and investment flows. Regulatory regimes negotiated among Governments were also necessary; most regimes emanating from UN bodies were preceded by more modest regimes that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Globalization of economic transactions has been occurring since the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. A simple reality of our present world economy is that there are clear needs and strong demands for rules of the game in many spheres of international commerce. The international business community enlists Governments to conclude and enforce agreements that promote order and openness. A large number of these agreements are global because the support of both developed and developing States is needed for their effectiveness. United Nations bodies are serving the economic interests of developing States by facilitating their ability to influence international economic regimes and their integration into the global economy, and this is very important for global welfare and order. A recent World Bank report commented that "without a forum for nation-states to discuss and negotiate orderly changes in national policies and standards, small economies may end up having to adopt the practices of the dominant economic powers, in a process of 'imperial harmonization'". (World Bank 1997: 132). As Secretary-General Kofi Annan put it: "Only universal organizations like the United Nations have the scope and legitimacy to generate principles, norms and rules that are essential if globalization is to benefit everyone." Such need for the growth and legitimization of multilateral cooperation by UN bodies is going to become stronger, not weaker, in the coming century.

International businesses need to support the many UN institutions that facilitate their global activities, and they also need to defend them from attacks that undercut their ability to contribute to the global order and ignore their very real contributions. And leaders of UN institutions must explain their contributions to the growth of global commerce and welfare. Inadequate attention has been given to projecting of the myriad of UN economic activities for the world of commerce. It should be a matter of pride that the UN system is central to the welfare of firms and peoples throughout its Member States.

Mr. Zacher is author of "The United Nations and the International Commercial Order", published by the UN Department of Public Information, from whose conclusions the article is excerpted, and is with the Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia, Canada.