WTO boss says action needed to tame globalisation
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010630/12/trade-wto
LISBON, June 30 (Reuters) - A top World Trade Organisation (WTO) official on Saturday said the body must launch fresh negotiations this year to ensure both rich and poor nations benefit from global trade.
"If we fail to launch a new round this year, I fear we may be consigning our institution to a period of hibernation," WTO Director-General Mike Moore told the Socialist International conference in the Portuguese capital.
"The global rules-based system based on non-discrimination could give way to a patchwork of discriminatory regional deals and even potentially hostile blocs, combined with aggressive unilateralism by the big guys," Moore said.
"Everyone would lose from this. But the biggest losers would be the poor and the weak."
Moore said the WTO would take key decisions affecting the world trading system in coming months. It would hammer out an agenda so ministers could put the final touches to it when they next meet in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar in November.
Moore was addressing the conference, which includes representatives from 143 social democratic, socialist and labour parties, on the issue of globalisation.
"Critics of free trade...claim trade benefits the rich at the expense of the poor," he said. "While it is true that some poor countries are not catching up with rich ones, it is equally true that some are.
Critics say globalisation exploits countries with weaker economies. Widespread anti-globalisation street protests have erupted at international economic talks, such as those in the U.S. city of Seattle and more recently at the European Union summit in Sweden.
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