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Grim Picture Of Present Globalization Process

Speaking on the theme: "Globalization to Serve the Interest of the Majority of the World," Mr. Carrington told scores of African American and Caribbean leaders attending Friday afternoon's session of the 8th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference that if globalization is to serve the majority, the process must foster and promote sustainable development.

"Policy initiatives, which countries would be required to make and the process of international cooperation must be channelled towards eradicating poverty, rather than merely enriching a minority," he said. "In other words, for globalization to achieve this objective, it must deal with the situation of today's world."

According to Mr. Carrington, 23 percent of the world's population earns less than $1 a day, and the income of the richest 25 million Americans is almost equivalent to that of two billion of the world's poorest people.

He further pointed out that the richest one percent of the world's population receives as much as 57 percent of the world's purse.

"This is the world of today," he said. "It is indeed an unequal and inequitable world, and it is the world in which globalization is the dominant feature."

Adding a tint of optimism to his comments, Mr. Carrington explained, however, that things were not always "quite like this."

He said at the beginning of the 20th century the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of developed countries was approximately three times that of the developing nations. Today, it is 20 times.

"The impact of globalization is extremely pervasive," he pointed out. "The problem is the vast difference in the impact – impoverishing one and enriching the other."

But as Mr. Carrington puts it, the globalization process has not only been accompanied by a marked increase in equalities between nations, but also within them.

He said the problem, however, is more intractable between nations as national policies can serve to assuage the latter.

"Only international cooperation can hope to impact the former," Mr. Carrington said.

Sadly, it is a situation that has not halted, but continues to deteriorate, he added.

Citing statistics from the 2002 United Nations Human Development report, the Secretary General revealed that while the United States' economy was prospering in the 1990's, 54 countries saw a decline in their average income.

He noted that of the 25 percent of the world's population that face the lethal combination of famine, HIV/AIDS, conflict and failed economic policies, the developing world take by far the lion's share.

"The harsh reality and unpalatable truth is that issues of concern to the developing countries have obviously not been adequately addressed in the globalization process," he said. "And the current impasse in Cancun, Mexico illustrates the dissatisfaction of developing countries and their willingness to form alliances to ensure that their interests are promoted and protected, not worsened."

He further pointed out that in order to combat such negatives of the process, focus must be directed on levelling the playing field.

"Globalization is not an automatic process," he said. "The decisions that direct the institutions of globalization are made by men and women who run governments and corporations in this world.

"So, in order for developing countries to truly benefit, those with major influences in these processes must have a change in their perspective….They must be persuaded to humanize the process….This is the only way that efforts to restart trade negotiations – like those stalled in Cancun – can be successful."

World trade talks in Cancun, Mexico collapsed early September amid sharp differences between rich and poor countries, dealing what some described as a harsh blow to the international free trade agenda. It was the second time WTO talks collapsed in four years, and a major setback to efforts to regulate the world's trade.

Poor nations, many of which had banded together to play a key role in negotiations, wanted to put an end to rich countries' subsidies to farmers.

But European nations and Japan were intent on pushing four new issues that many poor countries saw as a complicated and costly distraction. Many poor countries accused the United States and Europe of trying to bully poor nations into accepting trade rules they didn't want.

"In order to make the process of globalization work for the majority of the people, you must first give time to consider its most intricate and nefarious aspects," Mr. Carrington said. "You must secondly allow thinkers to work on how to design new programmes to correct that situation. We are dealing with a world situation and it needs time. If you do not, you will have at your door another Cancun."

But while he acknowledged that there is a need to institutionalize special and differential treatment in developing countries, Mr. Carrington admitted that not all of the world's ills can be laid at the door of globalization."

"It is also necessary for those of us in the developing world to move to new mechanisms for development," he said.

"It is for that reason that in CARICOM we seek to develop a single market and economy, providing not only for the free movement of goods, but skilled labour, capital and the right of establishment among the entire single market, which thereby enhances our attractiveness, increases our productivity and generates greater income and employment."

The four-day conference, which was held at the Radisson Cable Beach Golf Resort, wrapped up on Sunday.

Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal

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