The Hindu : Business : Liberalise immigration, PM tells developed world

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 19, 2006
ePaper

Business

Business

Liberalise immigration, PM tells developed world

Special Correspondent

Farm subsidies affecting livelihoods elsewhere

— PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

CONCERN FOR THE POOR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being greeted by Nobel laureate, Joseph Stiglitz (left), and watched by Vinay Bharat Ram (centre), and FICCI President, S. K. Poddar, at a seminar in New Delhi on Monday.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday exhorted the developed nations to liberalise immigration and the movement of labour, remove the trade-distorting farm subsidies and intensify more development-oriented efforts to ensure that "globalisation works for all."

In his inaugural address at a seminar on `Making globalisation work: An India perspective' in the presence of Nobel laureates Prof. Joseph Stiglitz, Prof. Amartya Sen and Lord Meghnad Desai, Dr Singh observed that when one talked of `globalisation' and of a `borderless world', the focus was largely on the movement of goods, capital and financial and logistical services. "There is as yet no framework for the movement of people," he said.

"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 managing migration in the uncertain world that we live in... we have still not been able to find an acceptable basis for making globalisation more development-oriented. This was the great mission of the Doha Development Round of multilateral trade negotiations,'' Dr. Singh said.

Turning to the farm sector, the Prime Minister hit out at the developed countries for extending subsidies which were coming in the way of the Doha Round. Dr. Singh noted that while subsidies distorted trade, farm subsidies of the kind offered by the rich nations not only distorted trade but also destroyed lives.

"We cannot continue to live in a world of `butter mountains' and `rivers of milk', liberally funded by government subsidies, when the poor starve in the villages of the Third World," Dr. Singh said.

To break the stalemate and make the Doha Round a success, Dr. Singh noted that the WTO talks must remain focused on development issues. "If the Doha Round has to have a successful outcome, and we sincerely wish this, then it must remain true to its original mandate of being a development round... We must find ways in which trade aids its development to ensure that globalisation works for all. This is the challenge before the leadership of [the] developed world," he said.

Dr. Singh regretted that even the United Nations — a body which could have been a political instrument to manage globalisation — had not succeeded while noting that not much attention had been paid to the politics of globalisation. The UN, he cautioned, would not succeed until it reformed as an institution and its own management was rendered more democratic and more representative.

The increasingly multi-polar world, he said, required global "rules of the game", not just for trade and capital flows but for the management of peace and security. Arguing in favour of state intervention on behalf of the weak in a globalised economy, he said that in democratic societies people expected the government to deliver on their basic economic and social needs.

"We are at a crossroads once again in the evolution of human history... The rise of Asia, the rise of other new nations and political movements, the emergence of new technologies, all these present new challenges. We need new responses. Old ways of managing global affairs, wherein single-digit `Group of Nations' could constitute themselves into a global board of management, are over,'' Dr. Singh said.

Prof. Stiglitz said India needed to use the flexibilities that existed within the framework of the World Trade Organization in order to benefit its industries.

He said this would not only benefit the common people but also the industry as a whole. "The issue of Intellectual Property Rights for life saving drugs is an area India needs to look into,'' he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section