The Press, Christchurch / By PETER LUKE
More globalisation, not less, is the solution to world poverty, says World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore. He used a speech to Canterbury employers yesterday to answer critics of the institution he heads, and the ideal of free trade - even as the chants of protesters could be heard outside.
About 60 free-trade opponents gathered outside the Centra hotel as Mr Moore arrived. Senior Sergeant John Doherty, of the Christchurch police, said the protesters were well behaved and good natured.
Criticism of free trade was rampant this year at the Seattle world trade summit which failed to kick-start the next trade round.
Mr Moore said he could understand how economic upheaval could be upsetting, especially when it appeared unpredictable and uncontrollable. "Too many people assume the worst: that what they value most will be lost and that what replaces it can only be bad.
"We need to reassure people that globalisation is generally a force for good. The last 20 years have seen a dramatic rise in living standards for many countries across the world. More has been done to address poverty in the past 50 years than the previous 500 years," he said.
Living standards in poor countries were not catching up with those in richer nations and it was a tragedy that a quarter of the world's population survived on less than one dollar a day.
"But let us be clear. Trade and openness is not the problem for those countries. Rather it is too little trade and not enough openness, not enough good governance and not enough democratic structures," Mr Moore said.
"The bottom line is this: the developing countries that are catching up with rich ones are those that are open to trade; and the more open they are, the faster they are converging.":
