By PATRICK McDOWELL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Multinational corporations were urged at a U.N. trade conference yesterday to fill the void left by governments struggling to address globalization issues.
But a key official warned that the companies must tread carefully or they risk alienating the parts of the world they're trying to serve, saying that globalization will collapse if its benefits are not extended to all people.
Organizers of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development had been hoping to resolve some of the disputes that sank the World Trade Organization's attempts to start a new round of talks in Seattle last year.
But those hopes have dimmed, with rich nations, led by the United States and the European Union, unwilling to broach trade disputes outside the WTO, the Geneva-based body that sets global commerce rules.
Businesses can help to fill the vacuum, said Juan Somavia, director-general of the U.N.'s International Labor Organization. But he warned that multinationals cannot just focus on their balance sheet but must take other social and economic factors into account as well.
Otherwise, said Somavia, people in countries where they operate will grow as disenchanted with them as they do with their national leaders, jeopardizing business.
The Chilean director-general, the first head of the ILO from a developing nation, said globalization in its current form will collapse unless ways are found to "make markets work for everybody."
"The benefits of the global economy are not delivering enough to enough people -- hence the backlash," Somavia added. "I find the situation frankly dangerous, politically."
Officials from some 190 countries are gathered in Bangkok in an attempt to define the world's economy in the new millennium. UNCTAD, though dealing with many of the same issues as the WTO, generally promotes trade as a tool for development in poor countries.
The meeting that runs through Saturday has become a sounding board for everyone from national leaders to non-governmental groups.
Supachai Panitchpaki, the Thai commerce minister who will take the helm of the WTO in 2002, said Third World countries who feel their concerns were ignored by rich countries in Seattle are finding common ground in Bangkok.
"I can see a more concrete agenda among the developing countries," said Supachai, without going into specifics. "I can see more of a consensus among them."
Mike Moore, the former New Zealand prime minister who currently heads the WTO, hopes that wider input will enable new trade talks to begin. He addresses the forum today.
Developed countries are still balking at his proposal that they remove all trade barriers for products from the world's 48 poorest countries.
Rubens Ricupero, the secretary-general of UNCTAD, linked the anxiety caused by rapid economic change to the rise of far-right parties in Europe.
To Ricupero, the situation compares to economic crises in post-World War I Europe that fueled communism and led to fascism.
"This is a very dangerous trend," Ricupero said. "I don't think the rise of extremist movements we see today has no connection with this phenomenon."
Iran's commerce minister meanwhile attacked "political matters" that have prevented his country from joining the WTO.
In a clear reference to the United States, Mohammad Shariatmadari said the fact that his country had not even been approved as a candidate for WTO membership was "an insult to the international community."
c 2000 The Associated Press.:
