A Payments Union for Developing Countries

V V Bhatt THIS paper deals with clearing and payments arrangements among developing countries as means of facilitating trade liberalisation and accelerated economic development. It is divided into three parts. Part I deals with (a) the general consensus reached so far with regard to the role of a Payments Union in promoting trade among developing countries, (b) the advance made toward establishment of regional/sub- regional unions and (c) the need for a universal Payments Union comprising, in principle, all developing countries/ regional and subregional unions. It is argued in this part that unless the developing countries agree among themselves to tuke decisive, concerted self-help measures to expand their intra-group trade with a view to overcoming the foreign exchange bottleneck to the pace of their economic development, their case for assistance by the developed countries and international agencies in the field of trade and aid would appear much less convincing than it is.