WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT TRADE AND WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW

By Forum de Comercio Editorial Team

Trade is rarely a topic of conversation over dinner or in talks around the water
dispenser at work breaks.

People may know that international trade affects their daily lives, but they worry,
because they do not know exactly how global trade can enrich everyone or what to do
when it does not.

Pro-Trade programmes will only enjoy public support when people understand the
possibilities offered by trade.

Concerns about unemployment and inequality, brain drain and immigration, civil strife
or environmental damage are part of everyday conversations, but many do not know
that international trade can be part of the solution.

Trade creates jobs and industries for poor or marginalized communities. Freedom of
trade outside one's own country can multiply the chances of success for innovative
entrepreneurs. In countries where development opportunities are scarce, trade is even
more important in the fight against poverty and offers poor communities the ability to
purchase the services they want or need.

In India, for example, it was feared that the liberalization of telecommunications would
lead to a reduction in services, especially in poor rural areas with few large customers
(entrepreneurs and domestic users of long-distance and international calls); however,
to the surprise of many, liberalization improved access to telecommunications in rural
areas and reduced costs dramatically as a result of competition. This improvement in
services had a positive impact on education and community development. The new
companies created infrastructures, which gave rise to new branches of activity linked to
the subcontracting business process and the creation of jobs by the thousands.

In development circles, in recent years, international trade has been accepted as a

means of reducing poverty. Even so, there is still no critical mass of well-informed
citizens who understand this link. If few people know the ins and outs of trade policies,
even fewer are those who understand the development of trade within countries,
starting with the ability to produce goods and services that interest consumers in the
rest of the world.

Without broader public support and knowledge of international trade and development
issues, initiatives such as the Doha Development Agenda, Aid for Trade or the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be difficult to succeed. What can
development organizations do to build a public support base for trade?
Trade and poverty reduction are rarely associated

In industrialized countries, knowledge of development and poverty issues remains

cursory. The latest transatlantic survey by the US German Marshall Fund shows
support for free trade, but also concern about job losses and reluctance to remove
trade barriers (see Did public support for free trade peak? ). When asked about the
most important reasons for providing aid, Americans and Europeans mention poverty
alleviation, health issues and the promotion of democracy rather than helping poor
countries to trade.

According to a 2003 OECD study, people are also not very aware of official
development assistance and cooperation policies. Also, according to a Survey by the
European Commission, four years after the MDGs were adopted, 88% of Europeans
had not even heard of them.

Why is so little known?

Those who could talk about the benefits of trade have never done well or outside
certain circles. Trade can be a difficult topic to explain. Even where there should be
connections to related fields, in practice this may not be the case. In LDCs, leaders in
trade, development and finance do not always communicate appropriately, for
example, to give trade its rightful place in development strategies (see Elements of an
appropriate framework).

This is reflected in education systems, the press and other media. Weare the ones

who,among others, could make a difference.

 Business leaders who focus on the viability of businesses are not used to
advocating for trade collectively. But things are changing. Ahead of the WTO
Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, the Financial Times published a letter
from students at IMD, a prestigious international business school, in which
executives expressed concern about "the lack of business and professional
leadership on the issues we consider most pressing today."
 Trade negotiators who may not be willing to disclose their negotiating
positions, complicating the task of journalists (see Reporting on Trade: A
Kenyan Opinion).
 Journalists who consider many articles on trade development not to be "hot
news" as diseases, armed conflicts or even controversial trade negotiations can
be. It takes a great deal of effort to find stories of human interest in the slow
and, in many cases, arduous processes of trade development and poverty
reduction over days, months and years.

Trade-related issues are often too complex to deal with without proper training and
knowledge. In many developing countries, the media are unsycing, which compromises
political and economic information, according to a report on the role of the media in
economic development, published by the World Bank in 2002.
In addition, they may find it more difficult to reach their audience. For example, the
odds of someone receiving a newspaper on a daily basis in an industrialized country
are 25 times greater than those of any resident of an African country. The Panos
Institute's work with journalists from developing countries (see for increased coverage
of trade in the media) reaches similar conclusions.

 Trade organizations that may not be doing their utmost to publicize the
contributions of trade to socio-economic development. Avoiding jargon and
approaching achievements from a human perspective is not enough. While it is
essential to include trade in development plans, these initiatives must be
accompanied by efforts to increase public awareness of the power of trade to
transform society.

Disclosure

What can trade development organizations do to combat the lack of interest – and
even public hostility over ignorance of the benefits of international trade? Who can
they turn to? Let's look at some examples.

 Journalists. Without the press, it is impossible to reach the public. Some

organizations raised this challenge by creating training programs for journalists
on trade policy issues that could be adapted or expanded to incorporate export
development and focus on case studies and human-interest articles on how
trade can reduce poverty.
 Teachers and students. Some NGOs developed trade education programmes.
Oxfam, a leader in this field, published books, games, posters and DVDs on fair
trade, poverty and globalization for children and adolescents. The World Bank
has a development education programme for secondary school students and
teachers that addresses the socio-economic and environmental aspects of
sustainable development. It was also useful to investigate the potential interest
of such programmes for your country and to explore partnerships to develop
and test curricula on trade development.

 Business communities. In this field, companies fulfill the dual role of student
and teacher. Even so, many entrepreneurs know little about trade issues
beyond those that relate to their immediate interests. On the other hand,
coalitions of well-informed companies influence parliamentarians and ministers
on export and trade development strategies. However, that influence still needs
to be greatly expanded, especially in the transition and developing economies.
A number of ITC programmes work with companies to help them promote their
interests and achieve a more favourable business environment.
 NGO. Many NGOs initially associated with humanitarian aid or environmental
protection, today have support programs related to trade policy, as indicated in
Trade for all: building bridges with NGOs (TradeForum, number 2/2006.)
Engaging in dialogue with these groups and seeking common ground can be a
good starting point.
  Trade policy makers. Policymakers also have a dual role. The decision-
making power of parliamentarians gives them importance, as does their voice,
in helping to publicize the potential of trade for development. But they also get
pressured from all angles. Donor entities – whose views on trade issues, in
many cases, translate into conditions for recipients – could allocate part of their
aid to outreach. At ITC, programmes are being implemented to connect trade
policy makers with business promoters to educate on the needs and interests of
the company in relation to the development of exports to decision makers.

Trade unions and religious groups are also among the various communities that can be
part of a trade support association.

Target more groups

A strategic way to achieve this is to combine the actions of the different groups into a
common campaign. Sweden's recent national campaign to publicize the MDGs is a
good example, involving the Government, international institutions, universities, NGOs
and private companies. The approach yielded excellent results. Four years after the
adoption of the eight MDGs, 27% of Swedes knew about them, compared with 12% of
the rest of the Countries of the European Union.

When organizing a campaign to expand export knowledge, the authorities will find their
best guides outside the field of trade. InterAction, CARE, Oxfam and other NGOs offer
manuals and guidelines on campaigns and advocacy. Fair trade organizations also
have manuals to increase support for their products.

With regard to the organization and implementation of a campaign, the first step is to
identify potential partners, even before determining who it will be intended for. To
increase impact, you need to join non-traditional partners and target a larger number of
groups. Attracting their attention through campaigns, sensitizes them and can become
valuable partners in promoting trade.

Business promotion of trade

"... The CEO of any U.S. company with international activities, however small, should
take the time to explain to workers – whether 5, 5,000, or 50,000 – how globalization
increases the company's opportunities, how open markets affect company revenues,
and how much of the wages come from international activities.

Business leaders are in a position to help change the way American workers think
about trade, simply with facts. For example, very few Americans know that by reducing
trade barriers by just one-third in the Doha Round, their average annual income would
increase by $2,000 (in 2003 dollars). Few are aware that, if achieved, the Doha
Round's objective of trade opening would go a long way in alleviating poverty.
And there are also few who know that it would be enough to import an additional 15
million tonnes of sugar into highly protected markets for a million jobs to be created in
developing countries without adversely affecting the US domestic market and the
global economy.

By explaining these facts, business leaders could help workers understand that trade is
the best tool to generate economic growth inside and outside any country, alleviate
poverty and foster global stability."

Excerpts from The Stakes of Doha, Carla A. Hills, former U.S. Trade Representative,
published in Free Trade? Special Issue of Foreign Affairs, December 2005, free
translation.

Research: Marija Stefanovic, JRC. Editors: N. Domeisen, P. de Sousa, P. Hulm and M.

Stefanovic.

FOR GREATER MEDIA COVERAGE OF TRADE

By Jon Barnes, Panos Institute London

How can trade experts and journalists collaborate to make sense of global
change?

Although the negotiations on international trade rules have attracted worldwide interest,
one crucial aspect remains largely ignored: the role of the media, in both developed
and developing countries, in public awareness and debate on trade policy-making.

In many developing countries, information on the World Trade Organization (WTO) and
related topics is scarce or lacks an analysis linking decisions taken at the international
level to the formulation of national policies and their implications for ordinary people.

Incomplete information

Although, in many cases, the press seeks the views of national trade associations and
other influential groups on trade rules, it rarely gives the floor to the poor and
marginalized such as small farmers, workers or women.

Information bodies often report on trends in high-level negotiations without sufficiently

analysing the real interests or substantive issues at stake. Some observers have also
detected this trend in developing countries, as well as a lack of interest in the human
impact of trade.

But it is journalists in developing countries who face the greatest difficulty in instructing
the public and channelling their views into a broader debate on trade policy, almost
always without support or resources. Many of the poorest countries do not send
journalists to international trade negotiating meetings, either because of a lack of
resources or because they do not consider it a priority.
The Panos Institute trained 13 journalists from Asia and Africa to cover trade and
development issues during the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in 2005 and
the suspension of the Doha trade negotiations in 2006 (see
http://www.panos.org.uk/tradingplaces). Panos' goal was to help journalists treat
trade news according to criteria that would fill some of the shortcomings typical
of chronicles such as those that follow.

 Links between national and international policies: Analyze the relationship

between the rules of international trade and the challenges posed to national
trade policies.
 Affordable analysis: Prepare simple texts on complex issues and policy
processes depending on the audience and explain jargon and technical
expressions.
 Development perspective and priority to poverty: Focus on the relationship
between trade and development – opportunities and obstacles and on the
impact of trade policies on poverty reduction.
 Human impact: Highlight how trade and trade policies affect people (e.g.
access to employment or essential goods and services).
 Giving the floor to the poor: Gather and publish opinions of poor and
vulnerable groups and the organizations that help them.
 Gender issues: Analyze how trade policies reflect and affect the roles and
socio-economic position of men and women.
 Represented interests and decision-making: Explore the social, economic
and political interests underlying trade policymaking.
 Opinion of different stakeholders: Interview stakeholders and other actors
included or excluded from trade policy-making at the national and international
levels (consumers, producers, workers, small businesses, ministries,
parliamentarians, etc.).

Despite the emphasis placed by policymakers on poverty reduction in the wake of the
Millennium Development Goals, it remains difficult to convince the media to report on
trade and development when their own environment is changing at such a rapid pace.
Concern about poverty – once a priority for journalism in developing countries – seems
to have vanished from the pages of many southern publications due to the increasing
commercialization of the press sector.

Journalists from developing countries told Panos that coverage of trade and
development issues is often not among the priorities of media owners, directors and
editors-in-chiefs who are concerned about getting afloat in a highly competitive
business environment. Obviously, they can estimate that "dry" stories about trade and
poverty are only of interest to a tiny group of readers and, in the struggle for editorial
space, under pressure from advertising revenues, opt for other topics.

Is it time to push some boundaries?

Many journalists and editors-in-chiefs are convinced that there are innovative ways to
make trade and development chronicles more attractive and that an effort should be
made to leave them more editorial space.
If we accept that, as part of their public responsibilities, the media should approach
trade from the perspective of development and poverty reduction, the first challenge for
journalists is to take a closer look at national debates on trade and poverty, given the
influence that national governments have on decision-making on international trade.
The second is to look at how national issues are reflected in the policy-making process
at the international level, whether in the WTO or elsewhere. Decisions at these levels
can have an impact on public access to essential goods and services, food, medicines,
water and electricity in developing countries, as well as on the contribution of
developed countries to international development and poverty reduction.

According to some analysts, one obstacle preventing trade decisions from being more
poverty reduction-oriented is the relatively small number of policymakers and interest
groups that determine the procedures and contents of trade policies in both developing
and developed countries (despite the rise of civil society and trade policy studies over
the past decade).

While the responsibility for remedying deficiencies in public participation does not lie
with the media, journalists have a legitimate interest in investigating those who do or do
not consult Governments in policy-making, what issues are at stake, and the
implications of policies for all socio-economic groups and whether or not the views of
the poor are considered. By providing unbiased, informative, sensational-free and
opinion-rich reporting by key stakeholders (farmers, consumers, workers,
entrepreneurs, minority groups, women and men), journalists can foster better public
understanding and broaden the debate.

Both in the WTO and in other areas of negotiation, governments are beginning to
recognize that a national position that is coordinated and based on input from different
groups can help a country negotiate with more confidence and credibility in the
international arena. Developing countries such as Kenya, Mauritius and Uganda
created structures to expand consultations to all stakeholders, not limited to the small
circle of State officials.

Whatever the difficulties of governments in terms of press relations and public

communication, Panos has the distinct impression that it is the media that could give
greater impetus to this interaction and not non-state institutions such as civil society
organizations or policy research organizations. This, in turn, would enrich the overall
public communication on trade and development issues.
 QUIESTIONS

 Why is so little known about the importance of foreign trade in poverty

reduction?
 How do you think the importance of foreign trade should be promoted to
generate development opportunities?
 What can you do to support the promotion of trade as a tool for poverty
reduction?
 In your opinion, how could it be possible in our country to counteract the
ideological positions adopted by the political class without any technical
basis, in order to win votes and position among civil society?
 Is this position described in the previous question, in your opinion
harming our country in any way?