Oct 27 , 2005 - Parliament magazine:
Globalisation comment
Making globalisation work for society will require tenacity.
Theoretical posturing must not be allowed to get in the way of ongoing WTO negotiations.
As leaders play with their models, both Anglo-Saxon and
Social, this European naval-gazing threatens the success of the Doha round.
There are similarities between the slogan "Trade for Development" and the Prime Minister's desire for "socially responsible globalisation".
Most people agree they are good ideas, both typically
Third Way, but will they work? Where does assisting poor countries'
development stop and helping those who are taking European jobs
begin? No one questions the need to help Lesotho but what about India?
And
yet there are 300 million people living in chronic poverty in India
who have more in common with subsistence farmers in Southern Africa than
they do with IT experts in Bangalore.
Making trade work for development,
and globalisation work for society, will require tenacity and flexibility.
Both are challenges we must rise to, and though failure
to deal with them will affect Europe in the long run, in the short term
it will be the world's poorest who suffer most.
We must think seriously
about the future of Europe but please don't let Doha suffer, now,
as a result.
