U.N. Conference Opens With U.S. Role Lowered
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GENEVA — The United States has sent a lower-level delegation than other countries to a U.N. conference in protest of what it considers bias in favor of the Third World, an American official said Thursday.
In Washington, the State Department contended that the “working head” of the U.S. delegation was the same rank as at previous meetings of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, which is known as UNCTAD and began its seventh quadrennial assembly here Thursday.
Most other countries were represented at the ministerial level. The United States sent Dennis Goodman, a deputy assistant secretary of state.
Goodman’s rank is lower than that of Kenneth W. Dam, the chief representative at the 1983 conference in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Dam was deputy secretary of state.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States decided on diminished representation because of what it felt to be the organization’s stance in favor of underdeveloped countries.
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