World
business says new trade round urgently needed
Paris, 29
November 1999 - The
President of the International Chamber of Commerce, Adnan Kas
sar, today stressed
the urgency of opening a new round of trade negotiations in a statement issued
on the eve of the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in
Seattle.
He said: "It is vitally
important to the hopes of millions for a better life that the ministerial conference
of the WTO continue the beneficial process of opening up world markets started
more than 50 years ago and carried forward over eight successive negotiating
rounds."
Mr Kassar said recent disputes
involving the three great trading groups of the United States, the European
Union and Japan underlined "the paramount importance" of defending the authority
of the WTO as a body formed by governments of their own free will and endowed
with legal powers to settle differences between them.
The President of the world
business organization, which has a membership of thousands of companies and
business associations in 138 countries, added: "Avoidance of unilateral and
extraterritorial measures and respect for WTO rules are essential foundations
for the further liberalization of world trade."
It was to be hoped that
the governments meeting in Seattle would resist giving in to pressure groups
that want trade measures to be used to enforce environmental and labour standards.
"To say this is not to downplay these issues, but simply to insist that they
should be tackled in a way that does not jeopardize the multilateral trading
system."
Mr Kassar said: "Ultimately,
the surest means of advancing labour standards will be sound economic development
based on the full participation of all countries in the multilateral trading
system. To sanction offending countries by excluding them from trade would have
the opposite effect."
The same was true of environmental
protection, he added. "The more prosperous a country is and the more modern
its industry, the greater its capacity to use environmentally-friendly technologies."
The ICC President pointed
out that the movement to keep trade negotiations separate from environmental
or labour policies is not confined to business but is supported by the overwhelming
majority of the 135 WTO governments, and in particular the developing countries.