WTO Chief: No Financial Plan without Emerging Economies

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Oct. 30 – The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Director-General says that there can be no new agreement on the world’s financial order without the cooperation of emerging economies like India, China, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.

“As Europe and North America face an economic slowdown, the Emerging Economies of Brazil, India, Mexico, China, Egypt, Indonesia and South Africa continue to grow and they continue to grow in large measure because of trade….In this ever more interconnected world, prosperity in India, China, Brazil is very much in Washington's interest.” Lamy said in a speech he made at Stanford University on October 27 and posted on the WTO website.

The emerging economies are significant to the United States because exports are contributing to GDP. On annualized basis, export and slowing imports contributed 2.9 percent of the U.S. GDP.

He goes on further to say that, “As policy makers go about creating multilateral architecture in areas like international finance and climate change, they would do well to consider the evolution of the trading system that has served them so well. Moreover, they can learn from the lessons we have learned in the Doha negotiations about making the concerns of developing countries central to any reforms. No international agreement on finance or climate change is possible today without China, India, Brazil and Indonesia on board. This is why the importance of reaching the Doha agreement extends beyond the confines of trade.”

Lamy says that while Europe and North America face an economic slowdown, the emerging economies will continue to grow, in large measure because of trade. ?