WTO chief says trade is under attack

Roberto Azevêdo, the head of the World Trade Organization, warned that the benefits of international trade are increasingly getting lost among the incessant anti-trade rhetoric that’s being espoused worldwide.    The head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) warned that the benefits of international trade are increasingly getting lost among the incessant anti-trade rhetoric that’s being espoused worldwide.
   “The risk of the negative rhetoric is that it will evolve into damaging policies down the road,” said Roberto Azevêdo, WTO director-general, in a speech Thursday before the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.
   Attacks on free trade agreements, such as the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, has come from both Republican and Democratic candidates during the run-up to the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, and many European political leaders are also casting doubt on the benefits of entering the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States.
   However, Azevêdo acknowledged that trade may cause economic disruption to certain industries and communities through the outsourcing of work and jobs overseas.
   “On top of that, there is also a perception that trade serves only rich countries and big companies – and that poorer countries and smaller companies are left behind,” he said.
   “While I would dispute much of this, it is certainly the case that the benefits of trade still don’t reach as many people as they should,” he added. “That’s one reason that today’s slowdown in global economic performance has given rise to the anti-trade rhetoric that we are beginning to hear more and more.”
   Azevêdo, as he has noted in recent statements and speeches defending trade, said the impacts of trade on sending manufacturing jobs overseas is “overstated,” citing that trade is a “relatively minor cause of job losses.” Instead, he said the fault has more to do with technological innovation.
   “Almost 50 percent of existing jobs in some developed countries are at high risk of automation today. And the number is higher in many developing countries,” he explained. “This is the real economic revolution that is happening today.
   “Many will find it unsettling. And that is completely understandable. But, like trade, technological progress is indispensable for sustained growth and development. So the answer is not to reject these forces. Quite the opposite: we must embrace them and learn to adapt,” he said.
   To deal with trade and technological changes, Azevêdo said countries have a responsibility to ensure their workers have the right skills to take on these economic shifts.
   For the WTO’s part, it must promote an open global trade system that “is truly available to all, and that it continues to deliver those benefits that we want more people to enjoy,” he said.
   “This means maintaining and strengthening initiatives to increase trading capacity in developing and least developed countries,” Azevêdo said. “And it also means delivering new trade reforms through the WTO that can help everyone to compete and benefit, especially smaller enterprises and those in rural areas.”
   He highlighted the benefits to this effort from the WTO’s recently announced Trade Facilitation Agreement, which promises to cut cross-border red tape and boost global exports by up to 1 trillion dollars annually, and the Information Technology Agreement, which is expected to eliminate tariffs on a range of IT products which is valued at $1.3 trillion a year.