The United States as Deadbeat

Congress and the Clinton administration are hashing out a deal that could either finally settle the debt that the United States owes the United Nations or put this country in even worse odor among its fellow members of the General Assembly.

The plan calls for Washington to come up with $819 million over three years to clear the books of unpaid dues and special assessments. The first problem raised by this offer is that it comes to only about 70% of what U.N. bookkeepers figure the United States owes. The second problem is that the offer to pay comes with some unprecedented conditions. Among them: that the U.N. secretariat cut its work force by 1,000; that the U.S. share of U.N. costs be reduced from 25% to 20% by the year 2000; that the United States pay no more than 25% of the costs of peacekeeping operations, instead of the 31% now assessed; that to save expenses U.N. conferences on global issues be held only in New York, Geneva, Rome and Vienna, where U.N. meeting facilities are in place; and that--talk about micro-managing foreign policy!--American aid be cut off to countries whose U.N. diplomats owe the city of New York parking fines.

The interesting thing is that the State Department and leading congressional Democrats seem ready, after prolonged negotiations with the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and others, to sign off on this package. Of interest too is that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has spoken understandingly if hardly approvingly of what Congress and the Clinton administration are trying to do. But Annan has also made clear that he lacks the authority to accept most of the conditions.

This may be where the fun really begins.

Assessments are the key issue, and only the 185-member General Assembly can approve changes. In the Assembly, even such longtime friends as Britain, France, Germany and Japan have signaled their opposition to reducing the U.S. share of costs. Poorer countries, which certainly don’t want to see their assessments rise to make up for lower U.S. payments, are likely to follow suit. So the arduously arrived-at bipartisan compromise on the U.N. debt issue could prove to be dead on arrival when it gets to the General Assembly, leaving the United States not only the United Nations’ biggest deadbeat but more than ever in disesteem among a lot of countries whose help it may one day need.

Our view is that the assessment issue demands a fresh look, because other countries might well be better able to pay more than they could in the past. But our view is also that the United States contractually owes the United Nations $300 million or $400 million more than what Congress says it’s prepared to pay and that the world’s richest nation ought to consider itself honor-bound to meet that obligation. Yes, the U.N. staff is too big and must be cut. Yes, economies can and must be made elsewhere. These are important matters. But important too is how it looks when the world’s remaining superpower tries to weasel its way out of paying what it fairly owes. Not to put too fine a point on it, it looks really cheesy.