Moore in defence of WTO

By DIANE COYLE

World Trade Organisation Director-General Mike Moore has hit back at protesters who disrupted the organisation's annual meeting last December with riots on the streets of Seattle.

"There might be 50,000 people at one of these demonstrations but 1.5 billion people are queueing up to join the WTO," Mr Moore said, in reference to China's desire to become a member.

"Ten million have joined since Seattle."

The former Labour Prime Minister, speaking yesterday at the London School of Economics, said he would publish a report today showing that trade reduced poverty.

The research, by academics at Tel Aviv and Sussex universities, showed that the more open an economy to trade, the faster it could catch up with the developed countries. And poor people within developing countries tended to benefit most from trade liberalisation.

"Abolishing trade barriers alone will not help much if a country decides to go to war with its own people, or politicians decide to spend more on arms than education," Mr Moore said.

"But freer trade is essential if poor people are to have any hope of a brighter future."

The WTO head argued passionately in favour of globalisation and the benefits it could bring.

Developing economies that were open had been doubling their GDP every 16 years, whereas it would take 100 years for a closed economy to double in size.

Mr Moore said progress towards a new round of trade liberalisation had not been set back very far by the failure to reach an agreement in Seattle.

The WTO was giving more technical help to its poorer members to modernise their procedures and help them become more transparent.

But he acknowledged that the moves would not satisfy the protesters who disrupted the Seattle meeting or meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in April.

"I think it [protest] is going to be a permanent phenomenon," he said.

One reason was that some people did lose in the short term from freer trade, as foreign competition could force some domestic businesses to close with the loss of jobs.

"That's really tough when you're 50 and, say, a third generation coal miner. You can protect the old jobs for a time but that's at the cost of more new jobs."

Gus O'Donnell, head of international finance at the British Treasury, said winning the debate would be crucial to making progress on trade liberalisation.

"Mike Moore has one of the most important jobs in the world at the moment."

- INDEPENDENT