Past Response to Grondona System

Abstract

The Grondona system was sufficiently well-known during the 1950s to be the subject of debate in the British Parliament in 1958, when it was vigorously praised by supporters, as well as in the press. Examples of this support are given in this chapter, which show how those who took the time to study the Grondona system recognized its unique strengths and strongly recommended its adoption by government. Unfortunately, when the British government finally set up a committee in 1976 to consider the problem of commodity price instability, it was chaired by a long-term advocate of the international buffer-stock system advocated by UNCTAD. As Grondona predicted, the result was that the committee's report contained no substantive criticism of his system but merely reiterated the government's existing policy of continuing participation in UNCTAD negotiations – to no effect nearly half a century later.