On Leadership, Pragmatism and Determination in World Trade - WTO DG Pascal Lamy

By Vijay Kumar

"IT is also time to think seriously about how we can continue to advance global trade opening, how we can progress in updating the existing trading rules. And in so doing, I see three key ingredients: leadership, pragmatism and determination.

Leadership is crucial because trade negotiations are governments' actions and governing requires making choices, taking decisions and being ready to defend them at home.

Pragmatism is needed to find paths that lead us to a final result; the path may not always be straight, we may need to take long winding roads, we may need to move at different speeds but the final goal will be worth it.

Determination is a must; we cannot give up just because the slope is too steep, because it takes too long or because the headlines are negative; we need determination because WTO negotiations are a collective enterprise of 153 members building for the long-term".

This was WTO DG, Pascal Lamy speaking at the inaugural function of the 2011 WTO Regional Trade Policy Course for the Asia-Pacific region, at Delhi yesterday.

He added, "An old proverb says "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime". It is this ancient proverb that best illustrates what the WTO technical assistance and capacity-building stands for: helping developing countries build the necessary long-term capacity to be active members of the WTO family. Helping them in mainstreaming trade into their national plans for development and for poverty reduction".

Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said, "India has an abiding commitment to building capacities for the people in the developing world and we have been doing so for decades in Africa, Asia and Latin America through a whole list of scholarship programmes. The Regional Trade Policy Course is a flagship Capacity Building Programme of the WTO and this is the first time that this course for the Asia Pacific region is being organized in South Asia, which makes it truly special."