His Excellency Mr. Guillermo Fernandez de Soto
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Columbia
I am happy to share some thoughts with you, both from my own experience and from the perspective of Columbia, a Latin American Country that faces the Pacific Basin and is willing to contribute positively to the challenge of bringing a new horizon of fairness to globalization.
These thoughts come from my experience in Government but, as well, as from my intensive dealing with business, as the former President of the Bogota Chamber of Commerce. From that position, I led the business community of my country into PBEC, which has allowed me to gain some insights from both Government and business.
Let me fulfil this privileged responsibility by addressing three aspects:
1. - Fairness is key to public support for liberalization
2. - Dialogue is a must to bring fairness into globalization
3. - The urgency of further democratizing the World Trade Organization
We understand globalization more as a sum of opportunities than as a burden, but we are also aware of the great risks involved. We have seen how huge and protacted structural differences between the developed and the developing worlds have worsened, as also has the gap between the rich and the poor within individual countries at all levels of development.
While free trade appears to be the best course for the world as a whole, it has not been so for every individual nation. As a result, appropriate political - and policy - solutions are required to break out of that dilemma, with the private sector's comprehensive contribution and understanding. We recognize that globalization calls for the various social players and the States themselves to intervene, as catalysts of the public interest.
We also find that, with globalization, international economic relations move ahead quickly, with little in the way of checks and balances, even as institutionalization and the political framework keep moving at a snail's pace. In other words, globalization brings about economic gigantism and political dwarfism, internationally. We desperately need to change this.
With globalization and the democratization of information, few secrets are kept any longer. We have more cards on the table and they are visible to many more players. A number of things have become painfully clear. We face more issues and they are more interdependent; hunger and poverty are a common enemy and yet more than a quarter of the world's population still lives in poverty; weaknesses in the economic development of developing countries are partly structural; and the gap in investment and technology - and, therefore, in economic development - between rich and poor countries is increasingly widening.
It is not secret that the regulations of the World Trade Organization do not account fairly for the legitimate interests and the legal systems of developing countries. This, we must correct. In this context, we need to revise the internal mechanisms of WTO to make them more equitable and avoid that some countries feel excluded. To such and end, Colombia supports the principle of consensus as a central element of democratization within WTO. We should continue our efforts to turn WTO into a truly universal organization. As of today, around fifty countries do not belong to it.
In Seattle, notice was served to multilateral organizations, governments and the business community that we all need to face challenges comprehensively and with integrity. To behave otherwise would be immoral. We need to empower the poor and establish fair mechanisms to enable developing countries to put into effect any such adjustments as may be needed to make them more viable as independent nation-states in the global community. Solidarity and a strong sense of moral responsibility should direct national and international policy-making, for both the public and the private sectors. This is not just to satisfy our conscience but, as well, a prerequisite for a prosperous, peaceful and safe world.
Columbia is eager to undertake the necessary dialogue with a view of relaunching a new round of negotiations, as soon as possible, within the World Trade Organization. We are willing to persevere in the search for consensual solutions, through open and direct dialogue, while treating everyone's fundamental interests fairly. Thus, we raise our voice in favour of: open access for our products to one international market; the integration of developing countries into the global economy; continuation of the transitional differential treatment, effective and operational, in today's trading system; and a substantial increase in the volume, transparency and effectiveness of official development aid. In the specific case of Colombia and alike countries, we also call for duty-free access for articles that are produced and exported within the framework of alternative development programmes, with a view of substituting legitimate crops and derived products for illicit drugs.
The Government of Colombia, under the leadership of H.E. Andres Pastrana, knows full well that the goals of the World Trade Organization has not been frustrated and that the multilateral trading systems is still in force. Multilateralism and universalism are central elements of our foreign policy.
This is the case because, together with greater equity, we also believe in the need "to make the pie bigger". More capital, to generate good productivity jobs, and in turn, product greater economic development, is definitively in order. Every unproductive job, whether in the public or the private sector, goes against the creation of more wealth as a whole. As open economy is a must, if we want to increase exports and adjust to international technological change. This, we can accomplish by targeting new players, both nationally and internationally, and by attracting more productive investment.
As you know, Latin America has implemented an open economic policy since the eighties, from which we have reaped such fruits as more trade, inflation stability, increased direct foreign investment and better education and health services. The work, however, is far from complete. Colombia, for one, continues its quest for a healthy and stable fiscal policy; to limit, as far as possible, the role of the Government to that of a regulator; to facilitate privatization; and to supervise such strategic economic areas as the financial sector much more closely. Latin America is committed to completing this task.
We are convinced that the returns of peace and economic progress must reach all members of society, especially the most vulnerable, in order for this millennium to mark the beginning of new horizons for the people of the Pacific Basin and enable them to face the economic and political implications of the changing global landscape advantageously.
We need a truly universal World Trade Organization to guarantee that world trade is both freer and fairer and to ensure that economic and human development go hand in hand on a global scale.
A truly universal WTP must be looked at in terms not only of membership for every country on the face of the earth, but, as well, or actual participation by all in the Organization's decision-making power, so that the basic aspirations of all people can be addressed with integrity and comprehensiveness.
We believe that there is enough political room for developed and developing countries to work together, so that the benefits of globalization reach everyone.
This is the challenge we all need to deal with on a global scale, with fairness, dialogue and courage.
Thank you all.