Moore preaches Apec gospel to the converted

By Brian Fallow

WELLINGTON - It was a bravura performance. Mike Moore's passionate defence of free trade yesterday may have been an exercise in preaching to the converted - the diplomats and scholars attending the Institute of International Affairs symposium on free trade in the new millennium.

But the contrast in style between Mr Moore and his rival for the leadership of the World Trade Organisation, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, could not be starker.

Dr Supachai, who may well be as committed a free trader as Mr Moore, was in Auckland this week for the Apec trade ministers meeting. The dessicated, technocratic style which has won him the nickname "Dr Super-dry" was on display, ironically, at a seminar on bridging the gap, that is, communicating the benefits of trade liberalisation to a sceptical or indifferent public.

Mr Moore was resolutely unforthcoming yesterday about the impasse over the WTO director-general's job or the proposal to resolve it by splitting the term between him and Dr Supachai. No-commenting was a new and rather liberating experience, he said.

His speech was an ardent defence of free trade, not just as economically sound or politically liberating, but as the best hope of the worst-off.

"In many countries, including my own, there are an increasing number of citizens who feel locked out, forgotten, angry and hurt, believing falsely that globalisation is the cause of all their problems. They sit waiting for a train that may never come, their faces pressed against the window, easy victims to old and dangerous songs that yesterday was better."

While most countries had seen incomes rise, the gap between haves and have-nots had also risen. "People are appalled and dismayed when they see the few living in splendour and the many in squalor, with half the world dieting and the other half starving. They are not impressed by being told that on average they are better off than before."

But this was not the fault of the world trading system. It was an argument for making it fairer and stronger. "Those countries that have liberalised have done the best and we ought to say so," he said. "The point is not that the global economy is somehow perfect or that the widening range of public concerns are without substance or validity. The point, rather, is that the challenges we face can only realistically be addressed inside this global system.

"If people, especially young people, say that unemployment is too high, they are right. If environmentalists say that growth must be sustainable and not destroy the planet's essential equilibrium, they are right. When developing countries say they are not getting fair access and justice, they are right." But none of those problems would be resolved any more easily by restricting trade, closing borders or undermining the rule of law as embodied by the WTO. Just the opposite.

Mr Moore argued for a more integrated approach to trade and development so that countries could take advantage of open markets, bridging the "false separation" between the work of the WTO and other world bodies like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Many smaller countries were in effect excluded by being unable to afford to have representatives in Geneva, or just overwhelmed by the technical details and thousands of pieces of paper.

Equipping smaller economies with the technical and research capacity they needed in order to engage in the WTO negotiating process could not wait. "That's the downpayment they want now, this year."