Global Policy Forum

By Vaclav Havel

We live in a remarkable age. Globalization is intense. Various areas of the planet become increasingly interdependent, and this global interconnection often brings ambiguous results.

It is hard, though, to imagine that the fundamental elements of this process could be stopped or reversed. The challenge is to find not only a political dimension to globalization but also its human and moral dimension.

Globalization must not become simply a kind of blind self-propulsion of a technological society, bringing to some unprecedented prosperity while others are marginalized further and condemned to poverty.

Globalization needs to be channeled to serve humanity, and its fruits have to be distributed more equitably.

Historically, trade has been a source of the economic and cultural development of quite a number of civilizations. Today, efficiently functioning trade is an important prerequisite for a more stable and prosperous world.

But such trade is not based on the rules of power. It is trade based on an agreed order that takes into account the weakest and systematically promotes their fuller integration. It facilitates access of less developed countries to foreign markets and thus to financial resources needed for development.

The World Trade Organization bears witness to the will of 142 countries to abide by contractually accepted principles and rules in their trade relations. A number of other countries have declared their support for open, rules-based trade, and are negotiating terms for WTO membership.

However, what was agreed upon in the most ambitious multilateral trade policy project to date, the Uruguay Round, is no longer sufficient. It must be further developed if the WTO is to be capable of reacting to current challenges.

Mutual interconnection and the opening of markets must continue in such a way that the cult of instant material benefit does not take absolute precedence over other values, and that the relationship between trade objectives and certain general social objectives is respected.

The issues of trade, development, poverty, health, the environment and human rights can no longer be dealt with in isolation, and they require cooperation and coordination.

The WTO ministerial conference next month will be a major opportunity to further define joint responsibility for a multilateral trading system. We all need a new and sufficiently broad-based round of trade negotiations, in which every participant gains something for himself and at the same time shows understanding for the interests or concerns of others.

The attempt to launch such a round two years ago in Seattle failed. Even today we have not been able to mobilize the international community and public behind this idea. I am convinced that in the end a harmony, or at least a convergence of minds, will prevail.

Amid all the talks of details, structures and whether this or that question should be placed on the agenda, the importance of ideas remains. We need ideas similar to those that guided the postwar architects of economic relations. They saw trade as the best means for achieving prosperity, peace and freedom.

The ideas we need, based on the shared human and moral values of today's civilization, emerge from a better understanding of a profound interconnection of events. We are all both citizens of a state and inhabitants of the same planet.

Ideas that can assist us before and during next month's conference could be a driving force that helps make the world a better and more just place - through a new round of multilateral trade negotiations.

We will need a consensus of representatives of all member states; even the smallest and poorest countries should be able to prevent acceptance of a decision that is unacceptable to them. Every participant should have the authority to engage in issues of global importance.

We live in a world where partnership is challenged by events such as the brutal terrorist attack on the United States, or humanitarian or natural catastrophes. Let us grasp joint responsibility for a better future for coming generations.

The challenge is to contribute, throughout a new round of trade talks, to the search for global solutions to the global problems of today's world.

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