Lamy reports slowdown in G-20 trade restrictions
WTO News, 31 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his report on G-20 trade measures issued on 31 October 2012, said that “there has been a slowdown in the imposition of new trade restrictive measures by G-20 economies over the past five months”. However, “at a time of continuous economic difficulties, trade frictions seem to be increasing”. He urged G-20 governments “to redouble their efforts to keep their markets open, and to advance trade opening as a way to counter slowing global economic growth”.
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Lamy cites ACP’s “instrumental role”
WTO News, 24 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, at the meeting of ACP Ministers of Trade in Brussels on 24 October 2012, said the Group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) members “is one of the more powerful and influential advocacy and negotiating arms in the WTO”. He urged the ACP to actively participate on five trade fronts: trade facilitation, regional integration, Aid for Trade, global value chains, and non-tariff measures.
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Pascal Lamy urges “smart policies”
WTO News, 20 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech at the European Industry Forum in Berlin on 20 October 2012 said “I believe that a big part of the answer to maintaining the competitiveness of European industry in world markets relates to the need for smart domestic but also European policies”. He expressed the hope that “what we saw in Europe for the last six months, including at this week’s European Council, are the first steps towards exiting the euro crisis and restoring a much needed credibility”.
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Trade opening key to Europe’s economic recovery—Lamy
WTO News, 17 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech at the European Parliament on 17 October 2012, said that “consolidating open and transparent links with the world’s new centres of growth is essential to Europe’s sustainable economic recovery”. He added that “trade opening offers Europe an effective tool to promote pro-growth reforms through innovation and stronger productivity”.
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Trade generates opportunities for development
WTO News, 03 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, at the opening of the academic year of the Geneva Graduate Institute with Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen on 3 October 2012, said: “In his work “Development as Freedom”, Prof. Sen defines development as a process that expands human freedom and removes those ‘unfreedoms’ that leave people with little choice and few opportunities. International trade is recognized as a tool for generating opportunities for development. In this same spirit, the WTO does not advocate open trade for its own sake, but as a means for ‘raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steadily growing volume of real income and effective demand’.
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Global economy at ‘critical juncture’, UNCTAD economist tells UN delegates
UNCTAD News, 03 October, 2012
The Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalization and Development Strategies has warned the delegates attending the General Assembly that “misguided” steps are limiting recovery from the global slowdown. He urged measures to boost income equality so that consumer demand is stimulated.
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ADB cuts Asia economic growth estimates
The Economic Times, 03 October, 2012
The Asian Development Bank cut most of its 2012 and 2013 growth estimates for developing Asia as a slump in global demand weighs on the region’s powerhouses China and India and on its other export-dependent economies.
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Global economy needs to create over 600 mn new jobs: World Bank
The Economic Times, 02 October, 2012
The global economy needs to create an additional 600 million new jobs to absorb the increasing working-age populations mainly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the World Bank said in a report. According to the World Development Report 2013, at a time when the world is struggling to emerge from the global crisis, some 200 million people including 75 million under the age of 25 are unemployed.
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“Openness of trade and openness of minds” key to meeting challenges of the future—Lamy
WTO News, 01 October, 2012
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, in a speech at the Brookings Dialogue in Washington, D.C. on 1 October 2012, said that “the challenges of the future will be no less complex or challenging than those we face today. In fact, there is every reason to believe that the economic, environmental and social conditions we have created today will make those challenges even more difficult to meet”.
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