What
business should do to thwart the terrorists
By Maria Livanos Cattaui
 |
| The spirit of defiance
should be worldwide |
Paris, 18
September 2001 - Faced
with the enormity of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, most
of us needed time before we could even begin to think about how to respond as
individuals. Now, people all over the world are going through that process.
What is the best thing we can do to honour those who died?
Business people especially
must refuse to be cowed by last week's terrible events. This is not a case of
"business as usual", for that cannot be. The mood should rather be
"business despite what has happened" - determination to get back to
normal life and activity as soon as possible and to carry on with plans and
projects.
For us to react otherwise
would be to play into the hands of the terrorists. They want to push the world
economy into recession. If their actions have demonstrably inflicted severe
injury, however temporary, on capitalism, they will exult. If they feel that
they have stopped global economic integration in its tracks, they will rejoice.
Those rewards must be denied them. That is the least the worldwide business
community can do for the victims.
Governments and central
banks are taking the measures needed to keep an already faltering world economy
from tipping over into recession. The coordinated cuts in interest rates by
the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the central banks of Canada,
Switzerland and Sweden this week were both timely and encouraging.
Companies and investors
have a right to expect their governments and financial institutions to continue
policy coordination on a global scale. We are already living in anxious times
as all the major economies simultaneously face a downturn. The terrorist assault
must not be allowed to compound those difficulties.
It is in the minds of individual
business people at every level that the battle to deny the terrorists the satisfaction
they seek will be fought and won. The tragedy must not weaken business confidence,
hard though the times may be.
When people are in trouble,
it is only human to look for positive signs, however bleak the outlook. There
can surely be no more timely and potent response than for the world's governments,
now locked in negotiations on an acceptable agenda for a new trade round, to
give that extra push that will produce the consensus that they seek.
A new trade round would
testify to the world's governments' collective resolve to put aside short-term
self-interest for the good of all, especially the world's poorer nations. It
would be an act of defiance that any government would be loath to reject, particularly
if the US Congress shows the way by giving President Bush trade negotiating
authority.
No group will benefit more
from freer trade than those developing countries whose people are mired in poverty
and the dangerous despair it generates. Provided a new trade round brings them
significantly improved access to the markets of the industrialized world, this
will do more to raise living standards and enhance stability than any amount
of development aid or debt cancellation.
It is encouraging to hear
the United States Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, say that the November
ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Qatar must be held despite
the terrorist attacks so that the world trading system can continue to promote
international growth, development and openness.
Qatar must not be another
sterile exercise - a repeat of the failure to get a trade round of the ground
in Seattle in 1999 that left the trade ministers empty-handed when they returned
to their capitals. That would be a grave setback to the WTO and all it stands
for as the guardian of the multilateral trading system, a setback that would
be acclaimed by all enemies of freer world trade and investment, including those
behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
There must at the very least
be significant progress at Qatar in further multilateral trade liberalization
to accompany the expected admission of China to membership of the WTO, immense
though that achievement on its own will be for the world. Those charged with
preparing China's accession brought 15 years of hard work to a successful conclusion
this week, giving a much-needed boost of confidence and hope.
Qatar must crown that success
by agreement on launching a broad multilateral trade round. That would be a
telling setback to xenophobia and intolerance and go a long way towards sustaining
business confidence everywhere in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.
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Maria Livanos Cattaui is Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce