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Mike
Moore's speeches
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Your
Highness, Ministers, Rubens Ricupero, Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen and Friends;
This
Conference is the culmination of more than three years of discussions
and negotiations about the future work and direction of this
Organization. But more importantly, this Conference is the beginning
of a new journey, which will also be long and arduous, but whose
objectives we know; they are the further liberalization of trade, the
creation of more jobs, the strengthening of the multilateral system
and the extension of the full benefits of that system to countries now
marginalized by poverty.
The
issues facing Ministers this week are essentially the same as those we
faced and failed to resolve at our conference in Seattle two years
ago, but we are now vastly better prepared to deal with them. This is
largely thanks to the extraordinary process of consultation and debate
which has dominated the work of the WTO throughout the past two years.
Thousands of hours have been spent in plenary meetings and in meetings
of heads of delegations; every issue, and every national position, has
been fully explored; the transparency and inclusiveness, which is to
say the legitimacy, of the Geneva process has been universally
acknowledged. Credit is due to our Chairman, Stuart Harbinson, to our
team and to ambassadors and delegates in Geneva who have worked so
hard, in an open process, marked by honour, integrity and good humour.
Sir, some of our critics are correct. We learned lessons in Seattle
which we applied in the Geneva process and which we must not forget
over the next few days.
As
a result the questions at stake are far better understood than they
were two years ago, and the number of outstanding problems left for
Ministers to resolve has been reduced to a manageable minimum. This is
not to say that everything has been settled but for a few tough
issues; we all know that nothing has been agreed at this stage, and
that the documents sent to Ministers for their consideration are
merely drafts. Deep differences remain. But they are clear and
businesslike drafts, providing a good basis for work and for the
decisions which you will be called upon to take at the end of the
Conference.
How
much do these decisions matter? What is really at stake here? For at
least three reasons they matter enormously. First, there is still a
vast amount to be done by way of trade liberalization. Every Member of
this Organization has needs that are addressed in the programme of
work and negotiation which is now submitted to you. Without agreement
on such a programme they will continue to be frustrated, injustices
will be frozen and great needs sidelined. Secondly, it is critically
important for the multilateral trading system as a whole to
demonstrate that effective, purposeful cooperation among
142 Members, and those many still to come, is perfectly possible.
The rules of the system need to be reconsidered at intervals, because
circumstances change, creating new challenges and new opportunities.
Every one of the rules has been negotiated and adopted by consensus:
that is the source of their legitimacy. By the same token, only
negotiation and consensus can change them. A mature and confident
organization should welcome scrutiny — that is healthy, it's how you
improve our service. And in the end, some years out, parliaments and
congresses must ratify the final agreements.
Thirdly,
the world economy needs the signal of confidence in open markets and
commitment to international cooperation which agreement here will
deliver. World trade grew by over 12 per cent in 2000, but after one
of the most severe decelerations in modern times, projections suggest
growth of 1 or 2 per cent at best in 2001. Developing countries face a
10 per cent fall in demand for their exports. Revenues are falling and
jobs are being shed in nations of both North and South. If we slide
into a full scale recession all will suffer but it is certain that
suffering will be greatest among the developing countries, especially
the poorest and weakest among them, because they live on the margin.
Whether that happens depends very much on the factor of confidence –
among other things confidence that governments will not give way to
the temptation of protectionism. The state of the world economy and
the threat of protectionism demand a clear commitment by governments
to sustain and strengthen the international trading system and resolve
their differences by negotiation.
We
know that trade and trade liberalization are not ends in themselves.
Nor will trade — or economic growth itself — eradicate poverty.
But we also know that protectionism will create poverty, as it always
has, and will increase international tension and conflict, as it
always has.
This
meeting will set the seal on a major historic event, the accession of
China and Chinese Taipei to the WTO. Trade is a great unifying force,
and a force for peace, development and security. It is good to
recognise that for all of us prosperity depends on the purchasing
power, and therefore the prosperity, of others.
The
multilateral trading system is probably the most successful effort in
sustained international cooperation of the past century — a major
public good, constructed over fifty years of devoted effort based on
lessons learned from depression and war. It has delivered trade
liberalization and peacekeeping through the law. The benefits of the
system have not been equally shared: because the main benefit is not
access to foreign markets but the stimulus of competition and the
better allocation of resources it has benefited most those whose
markets have been most open to trade. It is not true that developing
countries have derived little benefit from the trading system, and
specifically from the Uruguay Round. The share of developing countries
in world trade and output has risen steadily since 1986, except for
the crisis year of 1998, and it reached 30 per cent last year. In
dollar terms, merchandise exports from developing countries rose 24
per cent last year — twice the world rate — largely as a result of
the huge import demand of the United States. But it is true that
this growth was largely concentrated in those developing countries
which are heavily engaged in the export of manufactured goods. We know
that two-thirds of the benefits of further cuts in industrial tariffs
would go to developing countries. We also know that exporters of
agricultural and primary products have done less well: that is
another major reason why this Conference must not fail.
This
Conference will initiate the next stage in the development of the
trading system, whose focus must be the fuller integration of the
developing world. Capacity problems, not trade barriers, are the major
obstacles to growth in developing countries. Our main contribution to
the building of capacity to produce goods and services competitively
is made through the International Trade Centre, whose excellent work
must be enhanced. But we have a responsibility, as WTO Members and as
a Secretariat, to help build capacity in another sense — that is,
the capacity to participate fully in the work of the WTO and to derive
maximum benefit from it. The vast majority of the 50 new Members which
have joined the Organization since the start of the Uruguay Round, and
of those now negotiating their accession, are small developing
countries with severe institutional and resource constraints. Trade
rules offer only the gift of opportunity. That has to be backed up by
an effective civil service infrastructure, to negotiate, implement and
benefit from the rules. We have excellent cooperation with UNCTAD in
our JITAP programme. The new Integrated Framework will be a model of
inter-agency cooperation and coherence, enabling us to multiply our
modest resources by working with other agencies to assist developing
countries on the ground
The
Secretariat has vastly increased the time and resources devoted to
technical assistance and training, mainly as a result of generous
voluntary donations from a few Members. But this a core function of
the Organization, and one which will become more important as time
passes. It ought not to depend so heavily on trust fund financing;
apart from other considerations, long-term planning requires
predictability in funding. I hope that Ministers at this Conference
will give their endorsement in principle to an enlargement of the WTO
regular budget which will enable us to plan efficiently for the long
term, in cooperation with other international agencies and with donor
countries, and so to ensure better programmes and a proper return for
money. A formal request in this sense will be put to the Budget
Committee next month: endorsement in principle here must be followed
by a firm agreement in Geneva. The depth of this commitment must the
complexity of the outcome of this Conference.
Your
Highness, on behalf of the Secretariat and of every WTO Member I wish
to thank you and your government for your generosity in inviting us to
meet in Doha, for the excellence of the arrangements which have been
made and for your steadfastness through many difficulties. The WTO was
born at Marrakesh, in another Arab country, but for too long the
majority of Arabic countries have not been active players in the WTO
system; this has been our loss and yours. We are now making a major
effort to assist Arab countries to participate more actively, in the
knowledge that this Conference will mobilise interest, political will
and commitment throughout the Arab world.
Sir,
may I now thank you, Minister Kamal, his dedicated team and all the
citizens of Doha for your hospitality. |
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