Farce of Fund Surveillance

THE Bonn Economic Summit of the industrialised countries of the West has, as we know, been conspicuous for its failure to agree on almost any major issue. It could not agree on the timing and agenda of the next round of negotiations on trade or on the participants in it. Nor could it agree on the discussion of the reform of the monetary system. As it turned out, differences were quite sharp on both the issues of trade as well as money, but they were clearly sharper on money, What is so different about the agreement reached at the IMF's Interim Committee meeting towards the end of April this year that "effective Fund surveillance was necessary as a means of promoting sound economic policies and convergence of performance among member countries", that "steps be taken to strengthen surveillance over the policies of all Fund countries'', and that in that context consideration be given "to means of increasing effectiveness of surveillance over the policies of those industrial and developing countries which have a significant impact on the functioning of the world economy"?