Global trade rules more important

Global rules for trade are becoming more important as global trade increases, Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton told a conference in Christchurch today.

“It is the quality of the rules and standards that should be at issue – not simplistic debates over whether there should be any rules, or any trade at all,” Jim Anderton told the international conference on radio interference issues.

“The way rules of trade have been applied in many different forms by many different countries over decades has often been unfair and that has led many to declare that they are opposed to any form of regulation of trade.

“At the other extreme it has led others to oppose trade altogether. The World Trade Organisation now finds that wherever it convenes around the world it is met by armies of anti-trade protestors. Most of them will be carrying placards denouncing ‘globalisation’, oblivious to the fact that the protest movement is itself globalised.

“Many of those protests are directed against any form of trade or international co-operation. But many more citizens around the world are concerned and dismayed at pressure to take away the rules that govern trade – when those rules ensure that exchanges are mutually beneficial across countries.

“As global trade expands, the importance of rules about trade increases.”

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