ECONOMIC

A freezing of relative prices, either partially or fully, would thus inhibit theattainment of the stated goals of both developed and developing nations.It has long been recognized that large fluctuations in export earnings thatcan arise outside the control of the exporting countries can have importantdetrimental effects on the well-being and growth of developing countries.But it is not realistic, or useful, to attempt to introduce new mechanismswhen existing ones are being improved and are likely to deal adequatelywith the basic problems. The recent liberalization of the CompensatoryFinancing Facility in the IMF is an example of a major improvementeffected in an already existing mechanism. The scheduled review of thisfacility will determine the extent to which participants consider currentaccess to be adequate. In order to help minimize economic fluctuations,which are detrimental both to the countries in which they occur and totheir trading partners, systematic consideration in producer and consumerforums of ways to improve the stability and efficiency of specific commoditymarkets can be useful. More generally, in the interest of both commodityproducers and other trading nations the consultative machinery on generaleconomic developments and on their interaction among countries couldbe improved. The possibilities for recognizing and solving mutual problemsand mutual needs could thereby be strengthened.135