Mr. Mike Moore
Director General of the World Trade Organisation

Promoting openness, fairness and predictability in international trade for the benefit of humanity

T he current WTO drive to forge closer contact with parliamentarians reflects my personal experience and beliefs. I believe that parliaments and their members have a critical role to play in bringing international institutions and ordinary citizens closer together. In turn, the IPU as the international organization of parliaments worldwide can help its members to provide a comprehensive and cohesive parliamentary response to the challenges of international governance. It is important for parliamentarians and legislators to know about the institutions they own and fund. To assist you, we have prepared a new publication, WTO Policy Issues for Parliamentarians, which is being sent to all parliaments . It is imperative that elected representatives gain the confidence of citizens that they are closely following global issues as they evolve in international institutions. Early in my term I suggested to IPU that we should hold seminars to explain to legislators our role, to point out that we do not own governments, they own us. My staff have been working closely with the IPU to prepare such an event. The result - an IPU Parliamentary Meeting, For a free, fair and equitable multilateral trading system: Providing a parliamentary dimension, to be convened on 8 and 9 June this year - is thus very much welcomed. I have accepted the invitation to participate and I look forward to engaging in dialogue with all of you.

A big debate is raging about the benefits of globalization. In this debate the role of trade is both praised and criticized. It is defended by governments as the best way forward to achieve greater economic prosperity for their citizens, and yet shunned when the competitive forces of trade hit too close to home and when citizens blame trade for changes they do not like. Yet, governments know they cannot effectively serve their people and their peoples' interests without the cooperation of others. This is true for international trade just as it is for many other global issues. Governments cannot ensure clean air and a clean environment, run an airline, organize a tax system, attack organized crime, solve the plagues of our age without the cooperation of other governments and international institutions.

The challenge is how to work together internationally for the benefit of ordinary people everywhere. International trade is an important cross-border issue. Even more so nowadays, since trade policy touches on sensitive issues like the environment and food safety, which are becoming the very stuff of politics in the post-Cold War era. And the WTO, with its many ambitious and wide-ranging agreements and its uniquely binding dispute-settlement mechanism, is a particularly advanced instrument of international co-operation. It is also the only set of binding international instruments and rules already in place to control trade in the global economy and to ensure that the trading interests of large and small countries are equally respected. Our agreements are negotiated by Ambassadors and Ministers who represent their governments and who, in turn, are responsible for advancing their government's agenda. We operate by consensus and every member government has veto power. Openness, fairness and predictability are at the heart of the multilateral trading system.

There is, however, an urgent need for governments to ensure accountability and ownership of intergovernmental organisations such as the WTO to their peoples. This is where parliaments can make a vital contribution. The WTO is above all an intergovernmental organization. So it is mainly accountable to the people through their governments. Ministers hold us accountable every two years. Governments are in turn accountable to parliaments and the latter have a constitutional responsibility to represent the people and to pass legislation. Elected parliamentarians are the measurable and accountable representatives of civil society. I fear that if parliamentarians do not engage in the critical global issues and be perceived by the public to represent their interests and concerns, then others who do not have the same legitimacy most certainly will.

We live in an age of many contradictions. Advances in information and communications technology have made the world more accessible to ordinary people. Globally, we are now more prosperous and relations between states more peaceful than ever before in world history. Yet, the very international institutions and agreements which help build this new age of cooperative international relations are the source of increasingly virulent criticisms. It is a good thing that voters and consumers want more information and control, greater accountability and greater ownership. But it is unhealthy and dangerous if their feelings of anxiety and alienation, made more stark by the process of globalization, lead to a retreat from international institutions, treaties and agreements.

A glance at history tells us that the past 50 years of trade liberalisation are incomparably better than the protectionist nightmare of the 1930s. Indeed, the last 50 years has seen unparalleled prosperity and growth and more has been done to address poverty in these last 50 years than the previous 500. Since 1960, child death rates have halved in developing countries; malnutrition rates have declined by 33 percent; and the proportion of school children who do not go to school has dropped from around half to a quarter. Further, the number of rural families without access to safe water has fallen from nine tenths to one quarter.

Experience shows, and studies confirm, that countries that are more open to trade grow faster than those that are not, and so have less poverty, better jobs, better hospitals, and better schools. That is why over the past 15 years, developing country after developing country has unilaterally made liberalisation the keystone of its economic policies. The multilateral trading system proved its worth again only a few years ago when it helped keep markets open in the wake of the financial crisis that started in Asia and then swept the world, thus helping to prevent a global recession.

All institutions are imperfect and each can be improved. The GATT, now the WTO, is over 50 years old. It is correct that we review our work and debate our future direction. We need to improve constantly on what we have already. For me, one important challenge is to reconnect the WTO with ordinary people. Some of this is up to the WTO Secretariat. The WTO's External Relations Division deals with enquiries from members of parliament most days. I hold regular meetings with parliamentarians. I make a point of testifying before parliamentary committees as often as possible. I have made contact with global parliamentary associations like the Inter-Parliamentary Union and regional assemblies in an attempt to inform and involve. But most of the job remains with governments and parliaments. Your meeting, For a free, fair and equitable multilateral trading system: Providing a parliamentary dimension, is an important opportunity for members of parliament to commence bridging the gap between the WTO and the people. You have my full support and we will be there to assist you in your discussions.