Global Policy Forum

Even as thousands of protesters descend on Geneva to protest global poverty, ambassadors of impoverished nations are saying they want trade, not aid.

In a report released Tuesday, A Better World for All, the United Nations unveiled a poverty-busting action plan. The plan calls for more aid from industrialized countries, while urging poor countries to spend more on redistribution, gender equity and health. Yet as poverty activists outside (and some UN officials inside) decry globalization as the cause of developing world blight, leaders of poor countries are looking to it as a solution.

Last week, World Trade Organization members began negotiations to change trade rules that short-change poor nations. Ambassadors to the WTO aren't talking about a plan that will keep their nations hooked on western aid and loans. They want free trade, calling for an end to the intricate web of barriers that benefit the in-crowd at the expense of the out-crowd.

They want to see Canada, the U.S. and Europe eliminate protectionist textile import quotas and be given leeway on strict rules, such as those for health and safety.

By shunning global trade, poverty activists have been hoodwinked by their counterparts in the labour movement. Trade unionists know that foisting modern rules on primitive economies as a prerequisite to opening the trade doors is tantamount to bolting locks and throwing out keys. The leaders of poor countries know this, too.

Pay equity and a 37-hour work week don't get workers excited until they can comfortably put food on the table. Since 1995, the number of people around the world earning less than $1 US a day increased from one to 1.2 million.

Societies must take baby steps along the development spectrum. Creating an environment where local enterprises can flourish in the midst of poverty requires temporarily relaxing industrialized-world standards. That way every country will benefit from liberalized trade.

Canada's textile import barriers may help clothiers in Montreal, but Canadian consumers are forced to pay robber baron prices.

Union executives fill their war chests with members' dues, while unemployed Third World workers are denied the natural advantage they have in producing cheaper goods. Once trade barriers topple, resources will no longer be wasted on these hard-to-produce goods. Entrepreneurs will find new, more valuable jobs for domestic labour.

Poor governments can't build infrastructure, schools, provide health-care or distribute income, until they have created a viable economy to tax. That won't happen until rich countries start trading, unilaterally if necessary. Canadians, with several times the earnings, can afford to buy products from poor African states, even if Africans can't yet afford to buy from Canada. When we enrich our neighbours through trade, they will one day return the favour.

Foreign aid is a stop gap -- the remedy of lasting prosperity requires an open door policy. Time for WTO members to get on with it.