Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-15-Speech-2-058"
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"en.20000215.3.2-058"2
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"Madam President, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioners, I rise to speak on the subject of the World Trade Organisation, on which there is a broad convergence of views between the Commission documents and the positions of the Socialist Group. This is not the case in other areas, as has already been pointed out. We share these views because we are in favour of world trade, but we want this trade to be conducted according to common standards, common rules which would regulate world trade with one aim in mind. This aim is that trade should benefit development, and particularly harmonious development in which the values of citizenship do not only apply to the world’s most dynamic and competitive regions.
On the other hand, what does this statement tell us about principles? This regulation and these standards have brought an increased volume of trade for the World Trade Organisation, in other words, increased wealth, but when we look at how this wealth is distributed, we see, unfortunately, that the gulf between the world’s richest countries and blocks and the poorest and least developed countries continues to increase.
It is therefore quite legitimate and even imperative that we ask ourselves, what purpose do the current common standards and rules serve? What good are the current way in which we negotiate and the way in which the World Trade Organisation works, if they cause trade to increase on the one hand, but on the other, they create problems and above all cause this gulf between rich and poor countries to grow?
That is why we said that we were in favour of the strategy that the Commission outlined here for the Seattle negotiations and for later ones. We are certainly in favour of this strategic vision but we need to be brave and ambitious. We need to be demanding and ensure that social rights, environmental rights and consumer protection are incorporated into the forthcoming negotiations. Most importantly though, we must have a brave and ambitious long-term vision for reform, not just of the WTO but also of the ILO, the United Nations and above all, of the financial institutions, specifically the IMF and the World Bank.
We must be brave and not only see some aspects of globalisation. We must be brave enough to have more of an overview of this process, so that wealth does not only benefit the most highly-developed blocks and countries, but that there is also harmonious change and development in every region in the world."@en1
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