"Trade has become another casualty of the recession provoked by the severe financial crisis caused by lack of regulation, supervision and excess. In these times of serious economic crisis, our biggest challenge today is to ensure trade is part of the solution and not part of the problem.In this period of uncertainty and fear, calls for a stronger role for governments and regulators to intervene resonate well. But for this to be successful, all actors have to agree on common targets and enemies, and work together. Global cooperation within and across countries is therefore of the essence. At times of global economic crisis, enemy number one is isolationism.We still remember the 1930 Smoot and Hawley Act sharply raising US tariffs on more than 20,000 products. We also remember that many other countries retaliated, raising their tariffs on US goods. The Great Depression followed. Whether it is with tariffs or with new, more sophisticated faces of Smoot and Hawley, today we run the risk of sliding down a slippery slope of tit-for-tat measures. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.Ladies and gentlemen, paraphrasing Gandhi today we could say that “if it is a job for a job, then we will have massive unemployment”.To help WTO members have a better and real-time idea of global trends in international trade and trade policy developments, we have set up a radar tracking trade and trade-related measures taken in the context of the current crisis. Up until last Monday the radar picture showed that most WTO members appear to have successfully kept domestic protectionist pressures under control. In the meantime, a new spot has appeared with the “Buy America” provision in the draft US stimulus package to be considered by the US Senate this week.Protection, yes; isolationism, no. Governments must provide answers to the social unrest which is brewing behind the massive job losses. This is the time to activate social safety nets, not only in rich countries because there are also poor in rich societies. But also, and in particular, in the poorer countries who do not have the means to weather the storm. The stimulus packages that have been adopted need to provide answers to those who are being left behind in this crisis.And it is in this context that we all risk seeing trade and the WTO lumped together with the elements of the Washington consensus which many believe to have failed. With de-regulation and privatisations. And it is now that we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.This is why now more than ever it is time to stress the value of trade as a multiplier of growth and the value of the multilateral trading system, with its 60 years of global regulation, as an insurance policy against protectionism. I would humbly ask that these issues be included on the to-do list for the ICC Research Foundation that we are launching today.This is the time to invest in the WTO and strengthen the global rules-based system which has so carefully been constructed over the last 60 years. A conclusion of the Doha Development Round of negotiations is therefore all the more relevant and urgent."(discurso de Pascal Lamy em 2 de Fevereiro de 2009, via o site da OMC)
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"Trade has become another casualty of the recession provoked by the severe financial crisis caused by lack of regulation, supervision and excess. In these times of serious economic crisis, our biggest challenge today is to ensure trade is part of the solution and not part of the problem.In this period of uncertainty and fear, calls for a stronger role for governments and regulators to intervene resonate well. But for this to be successful, all actors have to agree on common targets and enemies, and work together. Global cooperation within and across countries is therefore of the essence. At times of global economic crisis, enemy number one is isolationism.We still remember the 1930 Smoot and Hawley Act sharply raising US tariffs on more than 20,000 products. We also remember that many other countries retaliated, raising their tariffs on US goods. The Great Depression followed. Whether it is with tariffs or with new, more sophisticated faces of Smoot and Hawley, today we run the risk of sliding down a slippery slope of tit-for-tat measures. It was Mahatma Gandhi who said “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.Ladies and gentlemen, paraphrasing Gandhi today we could say that “if it is a job for a job, then we will have massive unemployment”.To help WTO members have a better and real-time idea of global trends in international trade and trade policy developments, we have set up a radar tracking trade and trade-related measures taken in the context of the current crisis. Up until last Monday the radar picture showed that most WTO members appear to have successfully kept domestic protectionist pressures under control. In the meantime, a new spot has appeared with the “Buy America” provision in the draft US stimulus package to be considered by the US Senate this week.Protection, yes; isolationism, no. Governments must provide answers to the social unrest which is brewing behind the massive job losses. This is the time to activate social safety nets, not only in rich countries because there are also poor in rich societies. But also, and in particular, in the poorer countries who do not have the means to weather the storm. The stimulus packages that have been adopted need to provide answers to those who are being left behind in this crisis.And it is in this context that we all risk seeing trade and the WTO lumped together with the elements of the Washington consensus which many believe to have failed. With de-regulation and privatisations. And it is now that we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.This is why now more than ever it is time to stress the value of trade as a multiplier of growth and the value of the multilateral trading system, with its 60 years of global regulation, as an insurance policy against protectionism. I would humbly ask that these issues be included on the to-do list for the ICC Research Foundation that we are launching today.This is the time to invest in the WTO and strengthen the global rules-based system which has so carefully been constructed over the last 60 years. A conclusion of the Doha Development Round of negotiations is therefore all the more relevant and urgent."(discurso de Pascal Lamy em 2 de Fevereiro de 2009, via o site da OMC)