Sinha calls for equal opportunity, fair play

DAVOS, JAN 26. India today called for recasting the globalisation process around the principles of ``equal opportunity and just multilateral institutions'' and urged the industrialised nations to ``play fair'' in giving greater market access to products from all developing countries.

``The South is fighting a grossly unequal battle in adapting to globalisation,'' the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha said, speaking at the plenary session of the ongoing annual meeting of World Economic Forum (WEF) here.

Voicing concern at the ``shocking inequalities'' in the present world order, Mr. Sinha said the developing countries were of the view that the globalisation process was largely controlled by the North and often tends to be a ``win-lose'' situation for the former.

``We believe that the globalisation process tends to be quite unfair,'' Mr. Sinha said, speaking on the theme ``How can globalisation deliver the goods: view from the South''.

He said the world community was agreed on theoretical benefits of globalisation but felt that the processes by which nation states integrated their economies in a ``win-win'' framework was a matter for serious debate.

Regarding India, Mr. Sinha said he had worked hard to establish a ``prudent'' approach to globalising Indian economy in his role as Finance Minister for the past three years.

``Globalisation has raised aspirations and the citizens of my country and the developing world are no longer willing to tolerate poverty,'' Mr. Sinha said.

Mr. Sinha said countries such as India could have done much more to improve the well-being of its people if the developed countries had been willing to accept a ``fairer and more'' open process.

Citing the example of market access, Mr. Sinha said trade barriers must not exist and that globalisation would go a long way if the developed countries cooperated to create an environment that fostered greater market access - not just for the 48 least developed countries but for every developing country in the world.

The North continued to keep many of its markets off- limits for the developing countries while the latter has taken very many politically unpopular steps to open its markets. Tariffs in developing countries have come down, entire industries have been sold off or shuttered, and imports have risen steadily, he said.

The six-day meeting of nearly 3,000 corporate and government leaders began casting a shadow on the concept of globalisation as the Swiss authorities mounted the biggest security operation in the 30-year history of WEF to guard against possible disruptions by anti-globalisation protesters.

Hundreds of Swiss police officers have created a protective barrier around the conference centre to prevent any violence.

Mr. Sinha said if the North had truly opened its markets, especially in the agricultural commodities, textiles, clothing and pharmaceutical sectors, the exports of the developing countries would have grown quicker besides leading to a much stronger overall macro-economic situation.

Far more jobs would also have been generated, he said, adding that the South had substantial comparative advantages in these markets.

The Minister told the delegates that imposition of highly specific quality standards restricted the pharmaceutical exports of developing countries while quotas in the textile sector would not be removed till the end of 2005.

- PTI

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