E-Paper
Trade barriers myopic and unfair: PM
Speaking at Cambridge University, the PM urges rich nations to dismantle trade barriers, reports Aloke Tikku.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received his early lessons in economics at Cambridge University five decades ago. On Wednesday, he gave his alma mater his vision of a world order that hinges on making globalisation "inclusive" and governance "democratic".
In between, Singh made a strong call for reforms in the Bretton Woods institutions such as the IMF and World Bank and also the United Nations. He also talked about breaking down barriers erected by the developed world to restrict trade in agricultural goods to serve their "short-term national interest" at the cost of promoting free trade and combating poverty.
The Prime Minister suggested this strategy was not only guided by myopia and had a high financial cost on the exchequer but was also unfair.
"If trade is to be an instrument of combating poverty and spreading manufacturing capacities more evenly in the world, it is vital that barriers to the export of agricultural goods from developing countries need to be eliminated".
"Nearly two-third of the population of the developing world live in rural areas. In the developed world, this falls to less than 10 per cent… The prosperity of so many cannot be sacrificed for protecting the interests of so few," Singh told a gathering of nearly 450 people invited to Cambridge University's Senate House to watch the Indian on whose shoulders rest the fate of 1.2 billion people receive his honorary doctorate of law.
Manjari Keswani from Mumbai, who arrived in Cambridge last night to see son Karan participate in the ceremony that would honour Manmohan Singh, was one of them. She had not met her son since she arrived last night; an engineering student at St John's — the college that Singh went to — the university topper last year had been busy at rehearsals.
"I am very lucky to be here today," said Preet Majithia, a second-generation immigrant of Indian origin. So was Towfique Raj, a US national of Bangladeshi origin as he heard Singh send out a loud message to the West that if people in countries like India had to be convinced about globalisation, developed countries had to take an "enlightened view" in liberalising trade in services and labour intensive manufacturing.
