COMMISSION COMMUNITY

Maria Livanos Cattaui
Paris
March 3, 2003

Someone should sit down and estimate the collateral damage the world economy is enduring as we fight over what should be done with Iraq. The sum involved must be astronomical.

As consumer confidence deteriorates, stock markets fall, and economic growth falters, the relationship between the United States and Europe ought to be pivotal in checking the downward trend and setting recovery in motion. It should be, but it is not.

Instead, mutual recriminations are souring relations between America and some of its key European allies. Animosity is threatening to go beyond the usual folklore about national stereotypes. Name-calling is getting out of hand.

Transatlantic relations have never been just about ties between governments. They are also about companies on both sides of the Atlantic, whose fortunes are inextricably mingled, and about people and their perceptions.

The notion needs to take hold that we are all in it together, that more unites us than divides us and that cooler heads should prevail among countries that hold the same fundamental beliefs in democracy, the market economy system and societies based on the rule of law.

Awareness of that identity of interest seems to be rare right now. Business people in Europe and America are aghast at the lack of moderation among some of our leaders, and their tendency to damn anybody who disagrees with them.

Jibes about "Old Europe" from the US Defence Secretary are no more justified than the French President's complaint about the lack of upbringing of EU applicant countries who support the US stance on Iraq.

Chauvinism is spreading, fed by rhetoric from on high, absurd and self-destructive as it may be in a global economy. It is scarcely surprising that black lists of French cheeses have appeared on the Internet to help patriotic American consumers who wish to know whether to boycott Caerphilly or Camembert.

Business will certainly resist this sort of lunacy, much too sensible to shoot itself in the foot in a fit of pique. US aerospace companies are unlikely to follow a Republican congressman's call to boycott this year's Paris Air Show, however infuriating French foreign policy may be to politicians in Washington.

Irrespective of what happens next as this international crisis lurches on, political leaders must not neglect those issues that will set the course for mankind in the 21st century. It is surely timely to remind governments of a few of them.

None is more urgent than making a success of the Doha Round negotiations on liberalizing trade, whose outcome will affect the prosperity of upwards of 130 member countries of the World Trade Organization.

However, nobody is talking about the 31 March deadline on how to handle the make-or-break issue of agricultural trade, even though it affects the lives of millions of poor people in the developing countries.

The stakes in the Doha Round -- access to rich world markets for the world's poor, the growth of trade - are every bit as momentous for world peace and prosperity as the crisis over Iraq. Yet there are few signs that governments are giving the trade negotiations the political impetus they deserve.

There is much to be done now that technology has opened up boundless possibilities for progress where they scarcely existed before. New drugs offer new hope of beating disease, but the AIDs pandemic continues to rage in Africa.

How are we to get those drugs to the people who need them and make sure that health services exist to administer them? Genetically modified foods could alleviate hunger in famine-stricken regions, but are still spurned in many parts of the world without any conclusive evidence that they harm human health or the environment.

These are just a few of the challenges we shall still face when Iraq is off the front pages. That day seems remote at present - but it will come, and in the meantime our political leaders should not disregard their long-term responsibilities.
--------------------------------------

Maria Livanos Cattaui is Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce

HOME | BACK