From The Hindu, February 11, 1975: Wilson warns against raw material cartels

London, Feb. 10: There is a growing concern in Western Capitals about the third world, raw material producing countries’ “geopolitical power” — its impact, origin and consequences on the developed countries. It is a term which is very much in vogue and the members of the third world are constantly reminded that they will be only cutting their own feet if they went about organising commodity cartels, marketing associations, etc., trying to extract better prices and terms for their raw materials from the developed and richer countries.

India is still not forgiven for letting the Arabs and other oil producers to hike oil prices four times and for justifying the oil producers’ decision on merit of the fact that for decades, industrialised countries exploited oil producers to build their economies on cheap oil. It may now seem that there will be growing confrontation between the third world and the developed countries on this score and the British Government has taken a major initiative to warn the raw material producing countries about the consequences of such tactics.

Last night the British Premier Mr. Wilson called for international assurances for commodity exporting countries that would stabilise raw material prices. Mr. Wilson said that unless guarantees were provided about future markets for many key raw materials, exporting countries would form cartels to push up prices. Both Mr. Wilson and the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Callaghan, intend to develop this theme at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference in April.