Excerpts: (...) Today,we know that because of scientific and
technological advance, we can change the equation between energy use and
economic growth. We can shatter the limits that time and space pose to doing
business and getting an education.
(...) Terrorism, narco-traffickers and organized criminals, they can use all
this new technology, too, and take advantage of the openness of societies and
borders. They present all of us with new security challenges in the new
century. The spread of disease; ethnic, racial, tribal, religious conflicts,
rooted in the fear of others who are different -- they seem to find ways to
spread in this globalized era.
(...) First, I think we have got to reaffirm unambiguously that open markets
and rules-based trade are the best engine we know of to lift living standards,
reduce environmental destruction and build shared prosperity.
(...) Worldwide, open markets do create jobs. They do raise incomes. They do
spark innovation and spread new technology -- they do, coupled with the
explosion of international communications through the Internet, which is the
fastest-growing network in history.
(...) How can working conditions be improved and poverty be reduced in
developing countries if they are denied these and other opportunities to grow,
the things that come with participation in the world economy. No, trade must
not be a race to the bottom -- whether we're talking about child labor, basic
working conditions or environmental protection. But turning away from trade
would keep part of our global community forever on the bottom. That is not the
right response.
(...) If even one-third of the world's subsidies and tariffs in agriculture
were eliminated, the poorest developing countries that could export would gain
more than $4 billion in economic benefits every single year.
(...) Particularly in an economy that runs more and more on brainpower, no
investment pays off faster than education.
(...) If we could get the vaccines out to the people who need them in time,
we could save millions and millions of lives, and free up billions of dollars
to be invested in building those lives, those societies, into strong,
productive partners -- not just for trade, but for peace.
(...) We can also help countries help themselves by lifting their crippling
burden of debt, so they'll have more to invest in their people and their
future.
(...) It is one thing to tell people they should stop growing crops that can
be turned into drugs that can kill our children, and quite another to tell
people, if you do this, by the way, here's a way to support your children.
(...) But in today's world, developing countries can achieve worker
protection and the environment as we were on our path to
industrialization.
(...) So if there is a way for us to find a path of development that
improves, rather than aggravates, the difficulties we have with climate change
today by reducing rather than increasing greenhouse gases, we are all
obligated to do it. That is why, after the Kyoto Protocols, I recommended to
all the advanced nations that we engage in emissions trading and vigorous
investment of new technologies in developing countries, with an absolute
commitment to them that we would not ask them to slow their economic
growth.
(...) We have suggested that the Committee on Trade and the Environment be
invited to examine the environmental applications of WTO negotiations in
sessions where developing countries form the majority.
(...) We had a pilot program through our Agency for International
Development, working with the garment industry in Bangladesh to take children
out of factories and put them back in schools. The program got kids to learn,
and actually boosted garment exports, and gave jobs to adults who would
otherwise not have had them.
(...) We have a well-developed WTO for dealing with the trade issues. We
don't have very well-developed institutions for dealing with the social
issues, the environmental issues, the labor issues, and no forum within which
they can all be integrated.
Clinton's Speech at the World Economic
Forum, White House Briefing Room, World Economic
Forum
