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European Affairs
Book Reviews
A Labor Leader Praises Globalization
A World Without Walls: Freedom, Development, Free Trade and Global Governance
By Mike Moore
Reviewed by Jeffrey J. Schott
Mike Moore is a classic political thinker in the mold of President Woodrow Wilson - a social democrat and internationalist with the intellectual hunger of a university president. He is both a pragmatic politician and an idealist - indeed, one of the few labor leaders who embraces globalization. He is both principled and opinionated - often a toxic combination for a politician and one that perhaps contributed to his truncated tenure as Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and as Prime Minister of New Zealand. It undoubtedly also explains his persistent optimism in the face of electoral setbacks and the personal diatribe vented against him by anti-globalization demonstrators during his term at the WTO.
His new book is more a collection of reflections than a memoir of a central player in national politics and international trade for the past two decades. It is divided into three related parts that cover the impact of globalization on economic development and political freedom, the revival of the WTO since the disastrous Seattle ministerial meeting in 1999, and what civil society, corporations, and governments should do to improve global governance.
The first part is a discourse on globalization. It is full of CNN-type "factoids" that disguise complex political, socioeconomic, and cultural developments in our globalizing world. But as a primer on what globalization is and how it affects everyday life, designed to provide politically salient arguments for the public debate, it has some appeal.
What distinguishes this section of the book is not what is said - the arguments are clearly put but not innovative. Rather, what is distinctive is the context - a labor leader praising globalization, despite its adjustment challenges, as a positive force that opens up opportunities to advance personal freedom and economic development. It starts with an autobiographical account of his early years as an activist labor leader in New Zealand.
Coming from a small, trade-dependent island nation, it is not surprising that Moore adopted a more benign and pragmatic view of globalization than his counterparts in the conservative U.S. labor movement. He recognizes what I call the "globalization imperative": countries must confront the challenges of an increasingly competitive global economy and adapt their policies to take advantage of new opportunities to trade and promote investment in their countries. Standing pat is a sure-fire way to fall behind. He concludes that the anti-globalization demonstrators have it backward: the real threat to economic development is disengagement from global sources of trade, technology, and capital.
The second part of the book covers Moore's tenure as head of the WTO. Moore is rightfully proud of two major achievements of his WTO term: the launch of the Doha Round in November 2001 and the accession of China a month later. Moore recounts the tumultuous Seattle ministerial meeting in late 1999 and the lessons he learned that helped him and WTO member countries better prepare for the subsequent meeting of trade ministers in Doha. Seattle gave the WTO a black eye, but failure at Doha could have been a knock-out blow for the WTO as a negotiating forum.
Moore explains why Doha had to succeed and describes the steps taken to redress the mistakes of the slipshod preparations of the Seattle meeting. Those steps included, in particular, involving more developing countries in the planning process and giving priority to their development objectives, opening dialogues with groups in civil society, and reforming WTO operations to make them more transparent and better focused on the negotiating mandates. He is modest about his role in these events, and forthright about his failures (including trying to restructure the WTO bureaucracy). His modesty undoubtedly also constrained him from providing a "kiss and tell" account of the Doha debates - his description of the "Denouement at Doha" is clearly sanitized with few insider revelations.
Moore's discussion of the trade negotiations has two major defects, however. First, it gives short shrift to the important concessions made by the United States and the European Union at the start of the Doha ministerial meeting. Without the goodwill created by their initial concessions on access to medicines, antidumping and agriculture, it is unclear whether the trading superpowers could have convinced the developing countries to agree on the mandate for new trade negotiations. The leading trading nations have to lead the negotiating process or nothing gets done - a simple point that deserves more emphasis in the book.
Second, Moore overlooks a major problem confronting the WTO negotiations, namely that the political capital needed to launch a new trade round is much less than what needs to be expended to close the round. This problem is particularly acute for the United States and the European Union. After eight rounds of GATT reforms, neither has much left to "give" in trade liberalization, except for those well-entrenched barriers that reward powerful domestic lobbies.
Where will officials in these countries find political support for prospective Doha Round agreements? Clearly, the Doha Round will need to include major concessions by the developing countries for U.S. and EU export interests to overcome the opposition of farm and textile protectionists. Geneva diplomats seem reluctant to recognize this simple fact of life; unfortunately, Moore sidesteps the issue as well.
The third part of the book offers reflections on broad themes in the debate on global governance: the relationship of civil society and global economic institutions, the social responsibility of global corporations, and the need for more coherent policymaking by the global economic institutions. This section then concludes with some philosophical musings on "future challenges" in dealing with HIV/AIDS, demographic trends, and advances in biotechnology.
Moore wants to engage civil society, redress the flaws in WTO procedures that they criticize, but not devolve responsibility to non-governmental organizations (NGOs). For Moore, the key is not to change the governance of the "member-driven" international institutions. Rather he prefers greater participation by parliamentarians in the system to monitor and advise WTO members and hopefully ensure that they adequately represent their constituents. Given his background, it is not surprising that he favors elected officials over self-appointed members of NGOs, or that he has harsh words for the less civilized elements of civil society "who - in the name of democracy - try to stop democratic and accountable leaders from meeting."
Ever the politician, Moore recounts efforts at dialogue with the WTO protesters, but notes that often the demonstrators only wanted to talk to the media to publicize their causes and disdained from meeting the man they denounced in signs and chants. Perhaps Moore could also have reflected on the fact that many of the civil society groups were more used to litigating change in their societies than forging political coalitions to negotiate (i.e., legislate) reforms. The latter is how the WTO operates; by its nature, the process involves more compromise and less legal security than judicial decisions.
True to his title, or rather subtitle, Mike Moore has presented wide-ranging and literate reflections on "freedom, development, free trade, and global governance." Those interested in the nuances of globalization and the world trading system will find much of value. Those seeking first-hand accounts of "who did what to whom" will be more disappointed. Moore is candid but conscientious. And he takes care throughout the book not to intercede in areas where his successor now treads.