The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short): I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"welcomes the lobby of Parliament by the Trade Justice Movement and increased recognition of trade as a key component to reducing global poverty; welcomes also efforts made to draw public attention to these important issues; recognises trade has an important role to play in helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); is aware that to achieve this a multilateral trading system is needed giving developing countries a fair deal; recognises that the Government is committed to working with developing country partners, and other bilateral donors and multilateral organisations to achieve this; believes that the development challenges faced in Africa require the international community, working together with African countries, to make additional efforts to secure progress towards the MDGs; welcomes the Government's commitment to turning the agreement reached at Doha in November last year into a meaningful 'Development Round' and to achieving real progress on market access and in areas of importance to developing countries; will continue to support efforts to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and reduce trade-distorting subsidies; will support preferential access to developing countries through the Generalised System of Preferences aid to least developed countries through the Everything But Arms initiative; recognises developing countries themselves must undertake effective policy measures to integrate into the global trading system; supports these efforts and engagement in a broad range of activities to help countries participate more effectively in the multilateral trading system; and further welcomes the Government's commitment to doubling support for trade-related capacity building from £15 million in 1998-2001 to £30 million in 2001-04.".

This is a happy day for me. It marks a real shift in the development movement in the United Kingdom and, indeed, in the position of Her Majesty's official Opposition. Different groups have come to understand that more equitable trade rules are essential to create the opportunity for the poorest countries to grow their economies and for the poor of the world to work their way out of poverty. It is important to have such a strong new consensus across the development movement in the UK and across the Floor of the House. That is a significant change and it enables us to try to use our influence on the world stage to bring about the policy for which we all jointly argue.
My Department and I have been working to get the development lobby to take on the case for more equitable trade rules since the Department was established in 1997. Importantly, its powers were enlarged beyond being an organiser of the UK aid budget to include an analytical role
in trade, agricultural reform, fisheries, environmental agreements, debt, conflict, humanitarianism and so on. The objective was not just to run a good UK aid budget that was as large as possible, but to get the rules of the international system more equitable so that the planet could be run in a more equitable and sustainable way for all.

I should like to pay tribute to the quality of officials in the Department. It is respected as one of the most high-quality development organisations in the world in both its delivery and its analytical capacity. It is staffed by highly motivated high-quality officials. My first permanent secretary, Sir John Vereker, is no longer with us, but he made an enormous contribution to establishing the new strengthened Department. The UK should be proud of the quality of the people who lead development work for us across the world.

The new Department was established in 1997 with the remit to consider trade and development. Our first hurdle was posed by the Department of Trade and Industry. The official, now retired, who led on trade in that large Department was struck with apoplexy at the thought that the Department with responsibility for development dared to have views about trade. There was an enormous battle between the trade part of the DTI and my Department. Up to then, the DTI had been asked to promote only UK trade interests, and suddenly we were changing the grounds for discussion by saying that it was in the UK's interest to have an equitable set of international trade rules that allow the poorest countries to grow their economies.

That change has taken place. There was a lot of joint work and a lot of research, and by the time we got to Doha, DTI representatives-Ministers and officials-were more progressive than trade representatives from most other OECD countries because they saw more equitable global rules as being in everybody's interests. Today we are celebrating a long journey, and the first part of it involved legitimising the DTI's concern with the global management of trade rather than the simple duty to promote UK trade interests, regardless of the interests of others.
From there we moved forward to Seattle. Everyone will remember that almost every lobby and force, including the whole British NGO development movement, was opposed to a new trade round at Seattle. Many voices called for the WTO to be closed down. We had a debate in the House of Commons-I see the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Mr. Curry) nodding-in which a few of us argued that the WTO is a useful organisation that gives us a chance to strengthen global trade rules and make them more equitable.

The Clinton Administration, particularly President Clinton himself, the entire international trade union movement, led most strongly by the US but including Britain, the whole British development lobby and all the British environment NGOs were completely opposed to a new trade round. They believed that the WTO was a reactionary organisation that wanted to add to trade rules and conditions on labour and environmental standards, making it impossible for developing countries, which of course want to raise those standards, to meet the rules and have access to global markets. At that time, the trade spokesman for Her Majesty's Opposition did not mention, in explaining the party's position, the interests of developing countries.

Let us remember where we have got to. Today, with the movement of Churches and development NGOs, there has been an important shift forward. The last time there was trade competition in the world and countries were erecting barriers against each other, as we see with steel and with the US Farm Bill, was in the 1930s, when there was depression in some parts of the world. Country after country imposed tariffs, which threw the entire world economy into the most terrible depression. That led to the second world war and to fascism and all that flowed from that.

Following the second world war, we started off with the general agreement on tariffs and trade. I believe that the first trade round after the war was called the Torquay round, which is rather sweet. Not as many countries were members of GATT, and the negotiators were blocs of rich countries. There were rounds of trade talks to try to reduce the tariffs that remained from the 1930s. That was a worthy process, and it was better than what it took over from, but following the Uruguay round, the WTO was born. It is only five or six years old, and it really was an advance.

The WTO is an organisation which countries join by choice, and which is based on rules that apply equally to all. It negotiates by consensus. I do not think that any hon. Member will agree with the proposal made by the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) that the WTO should make decisions by majority. These matters so deeply affect the interests of individual countries that we have to move forward by consensus. It is remarkable that, in negotiating multilateral agreements on the environment and trade at Doha and elsewhere, we manage to reach global consensus.

In my view, and I think that this position is now more widely recognised, the shift to the WTO gave us a chance to get more equitable trade rules. Now, the majority of WTO members are developing countries, and if they come together in a trade round and work together, they will make gains. It is possible now to have a set of global rules that are fair and that give developing countries the chance to grow their economies.

Dr. Jenny Tonge (Richmond Park): Will the Secretary of State comment on an article in the Financial Times this morning which reports that the WTO trade negotiations are faltering badly and there is not much optimism that an agreement will be reached?

Clare Short: To be honest, I read the headline, not the whole article, but it appeared to suggest that because of the moves on steel and the US Farm Bill, there was a real danger that the Doha development agenda, which is an agenda for a trade round, would not be taken forward and we would not get a trade round, and that would grossly weaken the WTO. I agree that taking the WTO as an institution for granted would be a grave mistake. If the Doha agenda is not taken forward, the WTO will start to break up and lose its authority, which depends on consensus in the international system. We could easily end up with the rich countries making regional and bilateral trade agreements and the poorest countries being squeezed out of the rule making on international trade. If that danger were realised, it would be a terrible loss for the world and for developing countries.

Mr. David Curry (Skipton and Ripon): Does the Secretary of State agree that one of the reasons why it is essential to maintain agreement by consensus in the WTO is that without it the disputes procedure, which arbitrates in extremely difficult cases and is widely respected, simply could not continue to operate?

Clare Short: I agree. It gives one pause for thought to consider that whereas in national politics we have the conflictive style of politics that we all know and love, on crucial matters such as multilateral environment agreements and world trade agreements, all the world's countries are represented in a set of negotiations and manage to reach agreement by consensus. That is the only way to enforce such agreements-there is no world army that can make any country that gets out of line get back into line. Only through consensus and everyone understanding that it is in the world's interests that we all play by the rules and accept fair ways of decision making can we equitably manage the current phase of human history. I strongly agree with the right hon. Gentleman.

There is no doubt that in the run-up to Seattle there was a general view among developing countries that they had achieved less by the Uruguay round than had been promised, and there was resistance to a new trade round as a result. That was understandable: many of the agreements made during the Uruguay round were more difficult to implement than countries had understood when they made them. The rules of world trade are now enormously complicated, and they are difficult for all countries to implement and individual Ministers to grasp and negotiate. The agenda is now extremely complex and extended in scope.

The argument that we advanced prior to Seattle-I made a speech to this effect in early 1999 at the UN conference on trade and development-was that if world trade rules were unfair to developing countries, the only way to make them fairer was to have another trade round. My mother would have said that we would be cutting off our nose to spite our face if we said that we would not have another trade round because the rules were unfair. A lot of work went into building momentum so that developing countries, rather than feeling hurt and aggrieved by the consequences of the Uruguay round, would agree that another trade round was in their interests. The South African Government have played an important role in building an international coalition of developing countries. They started their efforts in the run-up to the Seattle conference and continued that work on the way to Doha.

To help developing countries to advance their interests, my Department announced-in 1998, I think, during a prime ministerial speech at the WTO in Geneva-a big increase in UK funding on trade capacity building. That is not a large part of development aid spending, but it is important technical work that enables countries to consider economic strategies-to see in which sectors they have a comparative advantage that will enable them to expand their economy and take up trading opportunities, giving them the capacity to enter the international system and negotiate to advance those trade interests. We have done a great deal of work in that area. It helped many developing countries to build the confidence to advance their interests at Doha and demand the sort of development agenda that was agreed there.

We also worked hard-this is an interesting story, which answers one of the questions from the hon. Member for Meriden-to build a legal advisory centre in the WTO to provide advice from trade lawyers to the poorest countries free and to low income countries extremely cheaply-a law centre to enable low income countries to exercise their rights under the rules of the World Trade Organisation. When we tried to promote the proposal early on, we met massive resistance, first within our own Government, which we overcame in the ways that I described earlier. [Interruption.] It is all part of a process to get everyone to globalise their minds and look for a way of running the world that takes account of everybody's interests. It is a movement that is taking place in political analysis across the world, rather more rapidly in some places than in others.

Then we encountered resistance in Brussels, where we were told that we could not give countries money so that they could get advice, which might mean that they would take action against an EC country under the WTO. I said, "We give legal aid to murderers." There was a ferocious battle. It was interesting to see the two mindsets on trade. Do we want a rules-based, fair system under which everyone can apply the rules and has rights? Trade lawyers cost a fortune. Anyone who thinks lawyers are expensive should look at the bills of trade lawyers. Poor countries would be unable to exercise their legal rights without some support.

The resistance to setting up a legal advisory centre was an interesting example of the way in which people regard trade as their vested interest against someone else's vested interest, as opposed to our joint interest in growing the global economy and giving the poorest countries the chance to grow their economies, which is not against our interest. It is in our interest. If the poor of the world had the capacity to consume more, the people employed in industry and manufacturing in this country would have opportunities to produce and export, which would be beneficial to them and everyone else.

Mr. Patrick McLoughlin (West Derbyshire): As usual, the Secretary of State is being honest and open with the House. Will she tell us which countries caused the most trouble? [Interruption.]

Clare Short: That would be very honest. The hon. Gentleman knows, as I do, that it is incredible that the world reaches agreement by consensus in the global negotiations that are more and more important to us. The globophobes attack all those intergovernmental meetings and say that there is no proper democratic accountability, but the proper accountability is to each democratic Government's Parliament and civil society. We each send our representatives to global meetings to reach agreement and there are many difficulties on the way, but we frequently make progress. That is remarkable.

We are at a turning point in history. I am not in favour of globalisation, and I am not against globalisation. Globalisation is history, and it is stupid of anyone to be for or against it. It parallels what the industrial revolution meant for Europe-an opportunity to spread technology, trade, economic growth and investment across the world. The question is how we are to manage it and who will benefit. Will everyone be included or are some countries to be marginalised? It is one of the leading tasks of politics to bring about a more just world and a more sustainable and stable world for future generations.

The first big, violent outing of the anti-globalisation protesters was Seattle, where they called on everyone to oppose trade and claimed that poor countries cannot afford to open their markets and do not want to be exploited by multinational capital. They said that the WTO is dominated by multinational capital trying to impose its rules on the poor of the world. That was the rhetoric. There were massive demonstrations, with many legitimate groups on the streets, as well as the groups that went around smashing up windows in Seattle.

I believe that after Seattle, if one had gone down most high streets and spoken to decent, caring people, most of them would have said that the WTO is an evil organisation that is trying to exploit the poor of the world. It is a danger of these times if the anti-globalisers are seen to be the ones who care about the poor. They advocate policies that will harm and divide the world and harm the interests of developing countries. That is why our own dear development NGOs' move to calling for equitable trade, instead of opposition to developing countries opening their markets to trade or having the opportunities to attract foreign direct investment, is a very important change. It puts the UK in a strong position to advocate for a more just, equitable and sustainable world.

I pay a tribute to the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats on trade and industry. He has written a pamphlet or small book on globalisation. At the time of the Seattle talks, he was speaking strongly-the right hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon was another, but there were not many others-in the spirit that I am putting before the House, which I think now has cross-party consensus. This is an important day and the unity in the country is important. The shift of development organisations is important.

I shall say a word on behalf of Mike Moore, the retiring director general of the World Trade Organisation. One of the reasons for the Seattle talks going wrong was the delay in agreeing who should take over that post-whether it should be Mr. Supachai or Mike Moore. After a long delay, during which we should have been preparing for the Seattle talks, there was an agreement that they should divide the job, I think for three years each.

The two men have worked well together. Mike Moore worked extremely hard to get us to Doha and to the Doha development agenda. In the past few days I read a savage attack on Mike Moore in a newspaper. It came from Kevin Watkins, of all people, from Oxfam, who is usually a reasonable person. He suggested that Mike Moore had no concern for developing countries. That is completely false, untrue and unfair. Mike Moore worked hard to enable the world to reach a consensus. I pay tribute to him and to the incoming Mr. Supachai. They have worked well together and they will take the world forward.

I am optimistic because it is possible to take on complex issues when we do not have agreement in our own countries. It is necessary to arrive at global agreement if we are to take the world forward. In a relatively short period we can see a big shift in public opinion. If these moves can be made, we can take ourselves forward into an era of better management of the global economy.
After Seattle, we were working with the World Bank to ensure that the bank took more interest in trade and the need for developing countries to make advances in trade access to improve their economic position. There was slowness and reluctance, but since then the World Bank has undertaken more work and produced the statistics that are quoted about how trade opening and trade liberalisation would be much more beneficial to developing countries than increases in overseas development assistance, although we need that to create institutions in developing countries that will enable those countries to run their economies and public services properly, and then to take advantage of trading opportunities and the opportunity to move their economies forward.

The considerable task that remains is to move the world forward into implementation of the agenda that was agreed at Doha. On the way to the world summit on sustainable development, which will take place at the end of August into the beginning of September at Johannesburg-that is 10 years on from the Rio UN conference on the environment-a preparatory meeting took place recently in Bali. It was the cause of great derision. Happily I did not go to Bali, so I do not have to be criticised. I have been there under my own steam, having paid for myself. The meeting went sour, but that did not mean that it was a disaster. It went sour largely because the G77, having seen the action on steel tariffs and the US farm Bill, is ceasing to believe that the world meant what it said at Doha and then at Monterrey about finance for development.
We have been building up a fantastic consensus throughout the world, from the millennium development goals to the UN millennium assembly. At Doha, there was a round of talks to make trade rules fairer. At Monterrey, finance was discussed, and what would be a sensible reform agenda for a proper balance between the public sector and the role of markets. There was a commitment to a reversal in the decline in development assistance that is available to the world.
We want to go on to Johannesburg to integrate the environment in the analysis and to overcome hostility between OECD countries, environmentalists and developing countries. Instead of environmentalists saying, "We don't want development", we want them to say, "We want sustainable development, and we must guarantee development to the poor in a way that is sustainable for the world." That is the only way that we will keep the world united.
Our commitment to implement what was agreed at Doha is absolutely crucial if we are to keep the sort of consensus that we have been building to drive forward progress towards a more just world. That will not be easy. As I am sure that hon. Members know, it was very difficult for France to agree to the commitments made at Doha on reduction of subsidies and reform in the agricultural sector. It held out until the end, and that was the most difficult part of the agreement. Changes have taken place in the US and some of our European Union colleagues have difficulties with holding to what was agreed at Doha.

We now have a fantastic consensus in this country, but we need to appeal to all our parties in all our networks throughout the world and to all the NGOs and faith organisations that are mobilised so impressively here today. We need to ask them to reach out to their networks in Europe and especially in the United States. Through the church networks in particular, they need to say to the United States, the biggest economy in the world, "Please don't think that you can run the world without multilateral rules." To achieve a just and sustainable world, we need the US to work with other countries to give everyone the chance to grow their economies.

There is a lot left to do, but this is a very important moment for the UK to have built the sort of agreement that we have got. It now suits our country very well for us to go out to bat on the world stage for more just rules for trade and in other areas, in order to make the world safer and more sustainable and decent.