(CNSNews.com) – In one of its last actions of
the year, the United Nations General Assembly on Christmas Eve agreed to extend
for another three years the formula that has U.S. taxpayers contributing more
than one-fifth of the world body’s regular budget.
No member-state called for
a recorded vote, and the resolution confirming the contributions that each
country will make for the 2013-2015 period was summarily adopted. The assembly
also approved a two-year U.N. budget of $5.4 billion.
The U.S. has accounted for
22 percent of the total regular budget every year since 2000, and will now
continue to do so for the next three years.
The U.S. representative
for U.N. management and reform, Joseph Torsella, expressed satisfaction that
the U.S. contribution had not been raised above that level.
“The United States is very
pleased to have maintained the critical 22 percent ceiling for U.S.
contributions to the U.N. regular budget, protecting U.S. taxpayers from the
additional bills – estimated to be at least $300 million annually in both the
regular and peacekeeping budgets – that would have resulted from an increase in
the U.S. ceiling level,” he said.
Two months ago, when the General
Assembly’s budget committee was meeting on the issue, Torsella noted that since
the last time the budget contribution formula was reviewed, “developing
countries have continued their impressive economic growth.”
“Countries whose economies
have grown should welcome the opportunity to become a larger stakeholder in the
work of the organization,” he said.
Torsella also reminded
that meeting that since the creation of the U.N., a fundamental principle that
has governed the budget contribution process has been “the avoidance of
overreliance upon any one contributor.”
What constitutes
“overreliance” is not defined, however. Between them the U.S. and Japan
contribute one-third of the total budget – and roughly the same as the next
seven countries combined.
The 193 U.N.
member-states’ contributions are assessed according to their relative “capacity
to pay,” based on population size and gross national income (converted to U.S.
dollars at market exchange rates). The ceiling is 22 percent while the bottom
level is 0.001 percent, which over the next three years will apply to more than
30 of the world’s poorest countries.
Whether a country
contributes less than $25,000 a year towards the budget or more than $500
million – as the U.S. does – it has the same voting privileges in the General
Assembly.
Moreover, as Heritage Foundation scholar Brett Schaefer has pointed out, countries that together pay less than 1.3
percent of the total are able, under U.N. voting
rules, to pass the budget over the objections of countries that contribute a
combined 98 percent.
According to the
resolution adopted on Monday, the biggest contributors after the U.S. for the
2013-2015 period are Japan (10.83 percent), Germany (7.14 percent), France
(5.59 percent), Britain (5.18 percent) and China (5.15 percent).
The next tier includes
Italy (4.45 percent), Canada (2.98 percent), Spain (2.97 percent), Brazil (2.93
percent), Russia (2.44 percent) and Australia (2.07 percent). No other country
pays as much as two percent, and most pay below one percent.
Some developing countries
have seen relatively significant increases in their assessments: China, the
world’s second-largest economy, will pay 5.15 percent, up from 3.12 last time;
the Russian contribution has risen to 2.44 percent from 1.60 percent; Brazil’s
2.93 percent is an increase from 1.61.
China’s year-on-year GDP
growth rate last year was 9.2 percent, Russia’s was 4.3 percent and Brazil’s
2.7 percent, according to CIA World Factbook data.
India’s increase in U.N.
contributions is more modest – from 0.53 to 0.66 percent – while Japan, Canada
and European countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will
contribute a smaller percentage over the next three years than they have over
the past three.
Before 2000, the U.S.
contributed 25 percent of the U.N. regular budget, but it was reduced to 22
percent in line with legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1999. The U.S.
still pays 25 percent of the separate peacekeeping budget.
Source:
CNSNews.com By Patrick Goodenough December
28, 2012
Comments:
The U.S. share of this operating budget
is $1.188 billion each 2 years, or $594 million a year. For that we get to fund the loss of our
sovereignty. The U.N. wants to establish
a one world communist government, To accomplish this, the U.N. needs for us to
replace our elected local city and county officials with appointed “regional
chairmen”, continue to chip away at our property and other rights through
treaties, trade agreements and U.S. Presidential Executive Orders. Our job is to stop this. We need to elect Constitutional conservatives
to office, to repeal the damage that has already been done.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party
Leader
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