A/RES/48/55 Page 3 expansion of world trade and enhanced export possibilities and economic growth prospects for all countries, Recognizing that regional economic integration processes, including those among developing countries, which have intensified in recent years, impart substantial dynamism to global trade and enhance trade and development possibilities for all countries, and stressing that in order to maintain the positive aspects of such integration arrangements and assure the prevalence of their dynamic growth effects, Member States and groupings should strive to be outward-oriented and supportive of the multilateral trading system, Emphasizing the need for increased international support for the reforms being undertaken by many developing countries and by countries with economies in transition, including the provision of increased global market access for their exports, which is of critical importance for the success and further encouragement of those reforms, Reaffirming the need to give priority to problems facing the least developed countries, owing to the fragility of their economies and their particular vulnerability to external shocks and natural calamities, Reaffirming also the message from the Trade and Development Board to the Governments participating in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, adopted by the Board at the second part of its thirty-ninth session, in which the Board stressed that an early and successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round should be viewed as a prerequisite to a return to the path of growth, trade expansion and an improved world economic climate, 8/ Stressing that, for the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations to be concluded in a balanced manner, issues of particular interest to developing countries and their development must be taken fully into account, Emphasizing that a failure of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations would seriously risk eroding business confidence, intensify trade differences and disputes, retard global economic growth and recovery, encourage and protect uncompetitive sectors of the economy and undermine the outward-oriented reforms being undertaken by many developing countries, Reaffirming the need for a balanced and integrated approach to environment, trade and development issues within the context of a new global partnership for sustainable development, Recognizing that the complex linkages between trade and environment pose significant challenges to the pursuit of sustainable development and to the maintenance of a free and open trading system, __________ 8/ See A/48/15 (vol. I), chap. I, sect. C.2, para. 1. /...