PM EXHORTS RICH NATIONS TO LIBERALISE IMMIGRATION, REMOVE FARM
SUBSIDIES
Prof Stiglitz calls for caution in coping with globalisation
NEW DELHI, December 18, 2006. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh,
has exhorted the leadership of developed nations is to liberalise immigration and the
movement of labour, remove trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and intensify
efforts to make trade more development-oriented to ensure that globalization works
for all.
Inaugurating the National Seminar on ‘Making Globalisaton Work: An India
Perspective’ with Nobel Laureates Professor Joesph Stiglitz, Professor Amartya Sen,
and Lord Meghnad Desai, the Prime Minister said: When we talk of ‘globalisation"
and of a "borderless world", the focus has largely been on the movement of goods,
capital and, largely, financial and logistical services. There is as yet no framework for
the movement of people. On the other hand, developed economies are becoming
more restrictive with respect to immigration and movement of labour. Even
economic theory has largely focused on merchandise trade and capital flows, paying
little attention to the economics and politics of migration in the modern word."
The National Seminar, the fourth in the series of such annual engagement with
leading economic thinkers, was organized by FICCI and SRC (Shri Ram Centre for
Industrial relations and Human Resources) and supported by the Planning
Commission, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), ILO, The World Bank and
UNDP.
'Making Globalisation Work’ is Prof. Stiglitz latest book in which he pinpoints why
globalisation has not worked in the way it set out to do, and offers prescriptive
solutions to make globalisation work better.
The Prime Minster made clear that subsidies distort trade and in the case of
agricultural subsidies offered by the developed industrial economies, these not only
distort trade but destroy lives and declared: " We cannot continue to live in a world
of ‘butter mountains’ and ‘rovers of milk’, liberally funded by government subsidies,
when the poor starve in the villages of the Third World."
Endorsing Prof Stiglitz’s view that neither the developed economies nor the
developing world can afford to ignore or reject globalisation, Dr. Manmohan Singh
said: "We have to learn to deal with (globalisation), cope with and manage it. Apart
from managing both the economics and politics of globalisation, "I would go one step
ahead and say that we must also manage its cultural and intellectual consequences.
These have to be managed in a democratic way…and we must also accept the
obligation of democratizing national and local governance," he emphasized.
The Prime Minister said while the economic consequences of globalisation and the
management of economic globalisation has come to the fore, not much attention has
been paid to the politics of globalisation and its political management. He said the
UN has so far not succeeded as a political instrument of managing globalisation and
"it will not be able to succeed unless it reforms itself as an institution and its own
management is more democratic and more representative."
Responding to the observations by the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr. Kamal
Nath; FICCI President, Mr. Saroj Kumar Poddar and Chairman, SRC, Mr. Vinay
Bharat Ram, Prof Stiglitz pointed out that coping with globalisation required a "vision
of what development is all about." It was about releasing that globalisation was
being used to weaken social protection, that the IP regime in TRIPS was tempered by
the US in deference to the dictates of special interest groups in the US, that it was
important to open financial markets and regulation to channelise the flow of capital
to small and medium enterprises."
He advised developing countries like India to create an IP regime that recognizes
that knowledge is a public good and that it is inefficient to restrict the use of
knowledge.
Prof Stiglitz said in the Doha Round of trade negotiations, the developed countries
reneged on their promises. "The US doubled its subsidies, then offered to cut them
back to their original level." Such double standard was also manifest in the report to
predatory pricing "where you allowed companies to sell below cost to drive away
competition and emerge as monopolies," he pointed out
Prof Amartya Sen underscored the critical need for collaboration between nations to
address the issue of inequality, a point that Prof Stiglitz was brought out effectively
in his new work. At the national level, he said it was important to encourage NGOs
so that people have access to global thinking and processes.
MEDIA DIVISION