Globalisation 'must not leave people behind'
Wednesday, 6 September 2006 12:00 AM
The UK must embrace the benefits of globalisation but ensure that the most disadvantaged are not left behind in its wake, David Cameron has warned.
The Conservative leader said it was the responsibility of politicians to tell "the whole truth" about what effect free trade would have on society.
Speaking to an audience in Mumbai during his trip to India, Mr Cameron said opening up economies must go hand in had with "economic empowerment" - giving people the training to enable them to take advantage of the new opportunities.
He also acknowledged the tensions caused by immigration, which was an inevitable by-product of bringing down barriers to trade and workers, and called for the government to help develop a "strong society" that could cope.
"We cannot have it both ways. We can't argue that globalisation is a massive transforming force, but then pretend that the transformation is always and in every way benign," Mr Cameron told business leaders last night.
"We must recognise our moral obligation to the people and the places left behind."
He noted the job losses in his own constituency in Oxfordshire, when the mills that produced the "world-famous Witney blankets" had to close in the face of competition from places such as India and China.
Mr Cameron warned that putting up trade barriers and introducing subsidies to keep these industries afloat was "always tempting" but did not provide the answer.
"Our response must be to match economic liberalism - our commitment to the open economy - with a new, and in many ways more challenging mission: economic empowerment," he argued.
"It means fixing the broken rungs at the bottom of the ladder from poverty to wealth. It means giving every individual the skills, resources and the confidence to take control of their life and benefit from the opportunities of the open economy."
Despite his concerns, however, the Conservative leader stressed that globalisation was a force for good - open economies allowed enterprise and innovation to flourish, and these were the "source of our progress".
He called for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks to restart to help improve trade between the developed and developing countries, and said that if this was not possible, it was worth considering the creation of a new EU-Indian free trade agreement.
Meanwhile, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit today claims that the pace of globalisation is slowing, saying that growing levels of protectionism mean that the rate of foreign direct investment is likely to fall in the next three years.
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