Mr
Chairman,
This
meeting could not be more timely. It gives me an
opportunity to pay my respects to our sister
organizations, to report to Finance and Development
Ministers, share our ambitions and seek Ministerial
assistance in capitals.
Two
months from now, in Seattle, the United States Government
will host the Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO.
Trade Ministers will launch new multilateral trade
negotiations, and set the WTO's work programme and
priorities for the next few years. Development must be
– and will be - at the very centre of this agenda:
we must use it to bring developing countries into the
mainstream of the world economy so they can share more
fairly in its benefits. In this we will need the active
support of finance and development ministers, and of the
World Bank and the IMF, as well as UNCTAD and UNDP not
only to make Seattle a success, but to help keep trade on
the agenda in the months ahead and to ensure nations can
engage throughout the round.
We
have an opportunity at Seattle to put practical substance
to the instructions of our leaders and ministers who want
us to act in a more coherent manner and who have told us
development can’t wait.
We
will be judged at the launch of the new round, not by
what we say, but by what we do. After years of analysis,
the very poor and indebted nations want more than
reports. We have suffered from a paralysis of analysis.
What
would be the real cost to the wealthiest nations if all
barriers to exports from the poorest nations were lifted?
That would represent just 0.5 per cent of world trade.
For example, Africa has seen major declines in its share
of trade since the launch of the Uruguay Round. This is
not entirely the fault of the trading system. Sovereign
governments have responsibilities here, but when they
develop export potential based on the advice and
exhortations of people like us, the door is slammed
firmly shut.
Improved
market access gives the gift of opportunity. Reductions
in tariffs in sectors such as textiles, clothing, and
agricultural products are of primary interest to
developing countries, and a key to achieving a balanced
outcome in Seattle. Put this alongside action on debt
relief, extending the benefits of E-commerce, more on
good governance including ‘win-win’ agreements
on transparency in government procurement and trade
facilitation - then we see the makings of a coherent
package that means something. We could do this at Seattle
then move to wider needs.
Developing
countries need better access to modern technology and
services, such as telecommunications, financial services,
information technologies, and electronic commerce. Some
have portrayed these as developed country trade issues.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Liberalization
in these sectors is about access to the building blocks
of modern economies. Instead of seeing technology as a
barrier between North and South, we should see it as a
bridge – and we must work together, not only in the
name of social justice, but because we are all, in the
end, each other’s customers.
Developing
countries, and particularly the poorest among them, need
access to the trading system itself, and to the WTO's
institutional machinery. We don’t have a world trade
system until the 30 developing countries and transition
economies seeking accession are inside the system.
We
need to make the system work for them. We need to improve
participation in the WTO, particularly for the least
developed countries who currently feel marginalized and
lack a sense of ownership of the system. They need
assistance in implementing existing commitments, dispute
settlement, and developing trade policy expertise, the
better to promote their legitimate self-interest. A
Seattle achievable will be to enhance and improve the
delivery of technical assistance, especially through the
Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical
Assistance for Least-Developed Countries.
We
need to make explicit the link between demand and supply
– between access to markets and the capacity to
benefit from this access. I believe Jim Wolfensohn's
Comprehensive Development Framework is an ideal vehicle
for integrating trade-related capacity building more
closely into development, and helping to make trade work
for human development and poverty alleviation. We need to
see the WTO's technical assistance and World Bank
capacity building as two sides of the same coin - an
integrated strategy to give developing countries the
productive resources they need to be full partners in the
global economy.
Our
work with the Bank on a new coordinated programme of
trade support and capacity building for developing
countries is advancing well, and I am in a position to
report in Seattle that developing countries have the full
backing of the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF as they
engage in new trade negotiations. I thank the Bank and
the Fund for renewing that pledge at recent meetings. We
know this requires new resources. No-one wants the trade
agenda competing for funds with other development
priorities, but we cannot advance in Seattle with an
unfunded mandate for development assistance.
I
will be asking Trade Ministers in Seattle to find the
funds we need to support more effective trade-related
technical assistance for developing countries,
particularly to help them meet their resource needs for
financing implementation of their WTO obligations. It is
in the interests of all that agreements are better
understood, and therefore more quickly implemented.
A
new round is an opportunity to encourage developing
countries themselves to continue using
openness and liberalization as tools for their own
economic growth. This means engaging confidently and
readily in further liberalization of their own trade
regimes, correcting structural weaknesses and market
distortions in their own economies, and locking in their
reforms under WTO rules. Good governance, which can be
improved through trade facilitation and transparency in
government procurement, can also play an important role
in securing the right environment for growth by
reassuring investors and taxpayers.
Our
task in the WTO this year is to secure a successful
Seattle Conference and to launch a balanced new round of
trade negotiations. But our goal is not freer trade for
trade's sake. It is about better living standards for all
countries – developing and developed alike. Because
only with higher living standards can we achieve better
health care and education, the eradication of hunger, a
cleaner environment, a more peaceful and just world. This
is our common objective. I’m looking forward to
working with you. You will have my total co-operation.
Thank
you
|
