Canada
and Globalization
Notes for
an address by Hon. David Kilgour, Member
of Parliament for Edmonton Southeast and
Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa)
At the 9th European Seminar for Graduate
Students in Canadian Studies
Brno, Moravia, Czech Republic, October 16,
2000
As a Canadian,
it is very encouraging to meet students
such as yourselves from across Europe who
have devoted some of your education to studying
our country. As Canadianists, you know,
perhaps better than some Canadians, what
the Canadian experience and Canada’s
values mean to the world in general and
your own countries in particular. We take
pride in our reputation as a good friend
to many nations, a respecter of diversity,
a peacekeeper/peacemaker, and a people devoted
to respecting human rights everywhere.
I’m
sure you are aware of Forum 2000, which
is currently taking place in Prague. This
year’s theme is "Education, Culture
and Spiritual Values in the Age of Globalization".
For three days, leading world figures, politicians,
academics, artists and writers, among others,
are discussing the challenges posed by globalization.
It’s interesting to note the difference
between the attitude towards the forum and
the recent IMF/World Bank meetings also
held in Prague which drew an estimated ten
thousand anti-globalization protestors.
Globalization
is a hotly debated subject. It’s something
I’m reasonably confident that many
of your own fellow nationals, like many
Canadians, fear. Many say it brings the
decay of social values, cultures, the environment
and even democracy itself. Two days ago
at the Moscow State Institute of International
Relations, for example, only a handful of
approximately 100 students, to whom I was
speaking about Canada’s human security-based
foreign policy, indicated that they thought
globalization is a good thing (In fairness,
most abstained from expressing an opinion
and a few indicated support). I’d argue
that the main challenge to globalization
is not to decide whether globalization is
good or bad, but rather to ensure that a
‘walled-down’ world provides more
fulfilled lives for people everywhere. Globalization
can be an agent for good, a force to create
unprecedented growth and opportunity for
those who embrace it.
Benefits
of Globalization
Economists
have talked about globalization for decades
even if the term itself emerged only recently.
Many speak of a borderless world, but that
is far from today’s reality where boundaries
are very real. Too often the term is thought
of as synonymous with unbridled capitalism
where any entrepreneur can raise money anywhere
in the world, make anything and sell it
anywhere. But globalization is more importantly
also about the free flow of ideas, the exchange
of culture and values, the greater attention
now being given to issues such as human
rights, environmental protection and technological
advances which have brought people closer
together than ever before.
Virtually
all economists have concluded that the large
majority of residents of our shrunken planet
are considerably better off through the
growth of markets and the efforts of the
GATT [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]
and its successor, the WTO [World Trade
Organization], to keep markets open.
With ever
expanding technology come expanded markets
and increased demand for products, but also
greater competition. There are now more
people with computers connected to the world
who are investing their hard-earned dollars
as never before. As Klaus Schwab of the
Davos World Economic Forum observed, "We
have moved from a world where the big eat
the small, to a world where the fast eat
the slow." More than $1.5 trillion
is now exchanged in the world's currency
markets each day, and nearly a fifth of
the goods and services produced each year
are traded.
Developing
World
Many are
concerned about the impact globalization
is having on developing countries. Noting
that the income gap between the worlds’
people living in the richest countries and
those living in the poorest countries is
rising, there is the perception that globalization
benefits only the rich, leaving the poor
behind.
Yet how many
of you know that Angola, Uganda and Botswana
already stand among the ten fastest growing
economies globally? The IMF forecasts that
Africa’s overall GDP should grow by
5% in 2000, a significant improvement from
3.1% in 1999.
Much of what
separates the developed and developing worlds
today is the information technology gap.
A key reason for the success of the Czech
Republic in the new economy is related to
the fact that this country’s 13 and
14 year-olds have achieved the best mathematics
test results in Europe, according to a report
by the European Commission. Is it any wonder
that Brno is becoming a high tech centre
when there are currently 500 students enrolled
in the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk
University, while as recently as six years
ago there were only 40.
Grâce
à la diffusion des idées sur
l'environnement, la démocratie, les
droits de la personne et, même, la
création de richesses par l'intermédiaire
de l'autoroute de l'information, de la télévision
ou des satellites, davantage de personnes
peuvent être amenées à
la table de négociation. D'après
moi, un des meilleurs effets de la mondialisation
est la technologie de l'information, qui
a mis l'accent sur le besoin d'étendre
la démocratie et de protéger
les droits de la personne dans le monde
entier. Les télédiffuseurs,
comme la BBC World Service, TV-5 et CNN,
sont les principaux véhicules de
la communication instantanée, qui
a révolutionné notre compréhension
du monde. Par contre, l'exportation croissante
des films, de la musique et des programmes
télévisés américains
préoccupe de nombreuses personnes
The Future
I would argue
that the alternative to managed globalization
could be very painful indeed if we recall
what happened to the pre-1914 short-lived
victory of free markets and liberal democracy
over mercantilism and nationalism.
If Fred Bergsten
of the Institute for International Economics
is correct that on trade matters you either
move forward or fall over- the bicycle theory
– there is real work to be done by
all of us. It is clear that globalization
is a force of great change and not simply
a spectre on the horizon.
Grâce
à la technologie, aux moyens de communications
et à l'économie, la mondialisation
et l'intensification de nos rapports sont
inévitables. Le temps et les distances
diminuent : la mondialisation reflète
cette réalité. C'est pourquoi
je m'interroge au sujet des personnes qui
condamnent entièrement la mondialisation.
Les pays ne peuvent réussir en demeurant
isolés. Un pays pauvre qui ferme
ses frontières à l'investissement
restera probablement pauvre. Tout en étant
une menace pour le système même
qui la soutient, la mondialisation peut
en même temps se faire le champion
de la stabilité, de la démocratie
et d'un partage accru dans le monde.
Action Needed
Here are
four areas in which Bergsten thinks you
and I should be active in our own countries:
- Public education
above all, which will require better analyses
of the real consequences of globalization,
including all of its benefits.
-
An honest admission that there are costs
and losers with globalization, together
with creating better safety nets and education/training
programs in many countries for those dislocated
by globalization or related factors,
-
Reviewing efforts to reform the international
financial institutions to help prevent crises,
including approving capital controls in
certain cases, more effective early warning
systems, better coordination of exchange
rates among the big economies, and engaging
the private sector more systematically in
rescue operations, and
-
Restarting the truly multilateral liberalization
of the global trading system, which should
address the key issues of the critics, including
food trade, labour agreements and the environment.
Canada, Europe and the rest of the world
are evolving quickly in facing the new and
complex challenges of globalization. I am
more than ever convinced that policies in
every land will be effective only to the
degree they are founded on common bedrock
values of democracy, maximum education for
all, the rule of law and independent judiciaries,
free market economies, respect and cooperation
for peace and security. If history has taught
us anything, it is that we ignore these
values at our peril.
As post-graduate
scholars many of you will fairly soon be
in positions to influence nationals in your
own countries. I wish you every success.
Thank you.
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