Does a Global Economy Need Global Rules? Report

Globalization and Standardization - Does a Global Economy Need Global Rules?

Over the past year, an increasing number of influential voices have repeated the mantra that “a global economy requires global rules.” The European Union’s then Commissioner for External Relations, Sir Leon Brittan, has been very vocal on this matter in his efforts to drum up support for a new “Millennium Round” of multilateral trade negotiations. United States then Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky agrees, but more tentatively. Renato Ruggiero, then Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has used this phrase in virtually every speech he has made over the past year.

Many other ministers made this point at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in May of 1998. The financial crisis in Asia has made finance ministers from around the world into globalists, ready to consider a range of proposals to beef up global supervision of financial markets and institutions.

Three points are noteworthy about this call for a new round. First, it suggests growing acceptance of a global economy. The description is now commonplace. There may be regrets, but the description is no longer dismissed. Second, the idea of global rules seems no longer to arouse intense controversy. Only extreme populists and committed nationalists now reject the idea. Finally, no political leader seems as yet prepared to provide concrete examples of what is meant by global rules, as opposed to international rules. It is enough to say we need them.

See report in pdf format.

While this report was produced in November, 1998, it still has some interest.