ECOSOC Debates Trade Barriers, Crisis, and Global Impact

By Apsa Shrestha & Dolker Gurung, Chief Reporters of ECOSOC for TES News
Kathmandu, 27 August 2024

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) under TESMUN 2024  focused its discussions on one of the global issues, ‘The economic impact of trade barriers in the trade war’ With the chair’s announcement, the chamber started with a general speaker list (GSL) of The delegate of Saudi Arabia (Sakchyam Ghimire).

The delegate talked about the main economic source of his country being the major oil exporter, which has secured a unique position in the global economy.

After the GSL of Saudi Arabia, The delegate of China(Shishir Khanal) gave his GSL further discussion about the various disruptions from trade barriers in his country. Many questions were raised to the delegate of China(Shishir Khanal). The delegate of Mexico(Prithu Devkota) accused China of facing trade issues with the European Union, despite being the most powerful country in the sector of trade. However, China was unable to answer the question raised by the delegate of Mexico (Prithu Devkota) with a satisfying answer.

Later, the committee led a moderated caucus on the “long-term effect of trade barriers in global supply chains.” The heated debate between Russia (Kabya Adhikari), Bangladesh (Unish Uprety), and Ukraine (Kareen Neupane) caused the committee to be more active. Immediately after the debate, the crisis arose based on  “Tariffs, which the UK and the USA established to safeguard American and European farmers, was rejected by China and Russia; as a result, the US and the UK raised their import and export taxes.” After the announcement, the countries mentioned in the crisis gave their presidential speeches: the UK (Suprinsha Lama), the USA (Sujan Subedi), China (Shishir Khanal), and Russia (Kabya Adhikari). The reporters from the ECOSOC committee asked some questions according to their speech, which were answered properly by all the presidents of the respective countries.  

In the second half, the crisis was updated when the  delegate of Mexico (Prithu Devkota) accused Russia of adding poison to the food exported by them; however, Bangladesh (Unish Uprety), being the ally country of Russia(Kabya Adhikari), defended by stating, “The delegate of Bangladesh can easily eat the food exported by Russia.” 

Additionally, the heated argument between Russia (Kabya Adhikari), Mexico (Prithu Devkota), Bangladesh (Unish Uprety), Ukraine (Kareen Neupane), and the USA (Sujan Subedi) completely shook the chamber, which was the most active committee for the day. To resolve this issue, the delegates agreed to maintain peace by making resolutions for the crisis at the end of the day and re-instilled peace into the committee.