International Trade

Speech to the European Parliament
24th October 2001

Deva (PPE-DE). – Mr President, justice must be done, but more importantly justice must be seen to be done: the WTO is a very powerful international organisation, dealing with rules and law, and it must be seen to act justly. Accountability and transparency are therefore exceptionally important. Global trade requires global rules and development requires understanding of some of the problems of the developing countries.

If we are discussing transparency and accountability within the WTO process, transparency for its own sake and accountability for its own sake are just not enough. The fundamental purpose of both is to create integrity in the system so that those who have promised to do things, and here I mean the developed countries, are forced to do them because of international public opinion. There are many things that the developed countries promised in the Uruguay round which have not been delivered. Conversely, those in the developing world who now have systems of corruption and bad practice will also be brought to book through the process of accountability and transparency.

In this regard, I would like to support Mr Désir in saying that he has produced an excellent report which I want to support. It is vital to understand the permanent position of the rule of law. Equality before the law and confidence in it is an absolute necessity for developing countries. Without it all the well-meaning words and the great aid-giving we indulge in will come to nothing. Justice must be done and must be seen to be done.

World Trade Organisation

Speech on the WTO Millennium Round
17th November 1999

Deva (PPE-DE). – May I begin by congratulating Mr Schwaiger on an excellent report. The Seattle round is being called the ‘development round’ for the millennium. I represent the south-east of England, one of the richest parts of the European Union, having been born in a developing country in Asia, one of the poorest parts of the world. I hope I can therefore span, understand and recognise the aspirations of the developed world, and of the developing world, recognising the enormous benefits of global free trade whilst also recognising the imperative need to manage the transition, to enable and empower the developing world to be an equal partner in globalisation.

The multilateral trading system was born in Havana in 1948 as the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs. Eight rounds of trade globalisation have helped to promote global prosperity. Since 1951, world trade has grown 17-fold, world production more than quadrupled, world per capita income doubled, average tariffs dropped from 40% to 4% in industrialised countries. Today, a further cut of 50% in border protection, including agricultural subsidies, would add over USD 370 billion to global annual welfare gains. Sixty per cent of this would accrue to developing countries. However, globalisation must be a win-win situation. There should not be winners and losers. Everyone should win. It can be made to happen. How can it be made to happen? The multilateral system should be fair, transparent, accountable and link trade to development. It should look at the impact of liberalisation on investments, competition rules, unfair subsidies, poor labour standards, environmental protection, intellectual property rights, trade facilitation, government procurement, improved access to agricultural markets, improved access to commercial markets including services, consumer protection and capacity building.

The European Union is unique in terms of the history of its relationships with countries around the world – Britain with the Commonwealth, France with its French francophone countries. We can send a clear message to Seattle that this is the single contribution that this House and its Members can make to world global trade.