The fight against international terrorism and world poverty would be better fought if another round of multilateral trade negotiations were held, European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Monday.
"The tragic events which the world recently suffered (in New York and Washington) clearly demonstrate, if this was further needed, that close links between North and South, between the developed and developing worlds, are essential to ensure the stability of the international system," Lamy said in an address in Nairobi to Kenyan businessmen.
Lamy was speaking a day ahead of a meeting in Nairobi between trade ministers from the European Union and some 90 countries from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) zone.
"We, the developed countries, must do much more to foster economic growth in the developing world, to create a more stable and development-oriented set of international trade rules as the basis for our trading relations, and in so doing, help to combat poverty, inequality and exclusion," the commisioner said.
A North-South partnership, he hoped, would "help establish a more stable and peaceful world."
"There is only one way to achieve this: by launching a new trade round aimed at tackling all the issues related to development through trade, strengthening of the common market rules and improving of mutual market access," he added.
"I know there is still some scepticism among African countries on this issue," he noted.
In the run-up to next WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, debate is raging over whether the time is right for another round of trade liberalisation negotiations.
Lamy insisted such a round was "in the interest as much of ACP countries as on the EU."
On Sunday, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania added his voice to the antis, claiming that the 1987-1994 Uruguay Round left in its wake a host of "unmet promises and unfulfilled obligations."
"What is needed is not to rush into a new round, but assisting poor nations to build up a capacity that will make them participate effectively in the global trading system, as earlier pledged by developed nations," Mkapa said.
"We do not see any logic for the urgency being placed on fresh talks by developed countries," Mkapa told Tanzanians in a regular monthly address.
He lamented that the current trading system, rather than boosting the development of poor countries, had widened the rich-poor divide.
The playing field was particularly skewed, Mkapa noted, by the generous agricultural subsidies that allowed the west to dump cheap corn on markets in poor countries.
The European trade commissioner, by contrast, argued that going further down the road of global free trade would narrow the wealth gap.
The EU, he said, was determined the next round "should be more of a development round... in which developing countries obtain meaningful gains."
And as well as using the carrots of world peace and prosperity, Lamy brandished a few other sticks -- or "political and economic realities" -- in his quest to win the Kenyans over.
Only through a new trade round, he argued, could the developing world "secure their trade objectives... and secure greater access into developed countries' markets for (their) agricultural exports."
Only through a new round, he hinted, could poor countries overcome the intellectual property impediments to fighting the spread of HIV.
"The WTO may not be perfect, but it's your best shot if you are to punch your weight in world trade." |
