Topic: 2024-Supply Chain Stability
Country: Colombia
Delegate Name: Owen Krueger
Colombia has had a long history of supply chain inefficiency and disruption. Colombia has a very real and major stake in the supply chain stability especially when international supply chains fall apart cartels in Colombia take advantage of vulnerabilities within hard to access and easily disconnected communities. Given this and the failures of the current global policy on the international drug trade, Colombia would like to see UN action on building up rural communities to lift the rest of the global supply chain up with them.
In Colombia and other countries in the region, many rural agricultural communities rely on the drug trade to make a living and survive. Many of these rural farmers plant coca which is used in the production of cocaine. Although coca farming is explicitly illegal in Colombia the current Colombian administration recognises that it is the most profitable crop for many farmers to plant. This fact shows the prevalence and impact of the international drug trade. Cartels in Colombia have large amounts of power in remote community they can prevent the export and transport of goods from within and through their territory. They do this by robbing, taxing, and extorting people and businesses who abide by the law. The control over trade that cartels hold is a fact that is little spoken about in the international supply chain discussion but have significant impact on countries like Colombia.
Developing rural communities like those affected by cartels and cartel violence will lift up these communities. For example in Colombia we have awarded Farmers for planting legal crops instead of coca. Lifting up these communities will add more depth to economies like Colombia`s. If more Colombian farmers could farm food products instead of the illegal coca cash crop then it will not only add the ability for these transactions to be taxed and regulated but also make it so Colombians can buy Colombian grown food products instead of foreign imported ones which will strengthen the Colombian economy vastly.
Colombia would like to see all of these issues addressed in the form of legislation in the UN which will call for a further crackdown on cartel violence against legal trade as well as action to build up the global supply chain from the bottom up starting with building up prosperity and legal business in rural areas. Colombia believes that part of such a resolution could add to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime by adding protocols against the production of illicit drugs as well as protocols to combat drug cartels. Also, Colombia would be interested in developing a UN program to enhance the development of rural communities by promoting legal and proper methods of business and trade.
Colombia looks forward to further productive discussion on this topic in committee.
Works Cited
United Nations. “United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.” Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly, 8 Jan. 2001, www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_55_25.pdf.
“From the Bottom up: A Different Context for the Colombian Drug Trade – Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 22 Jan. 2021, gjia.georgetown.edu/2021/01/20/from-the-bottom-up-a-different-context-for-the-colombian-drug-trade.
Supply Chain Stability – GLICA.org. 22 Nov. 2024, glica.org/glimun/committees/supply-chain-stability.
