Tansey tells school globalisation means free trade, not fair trade

Globalisation means free trade but not fair trade, the International Humbert School was told yesterday. And there is no centralised international institution to counteract trends such as international currency speculation, according to an economist, Mr Paul Tansey.

He predicted a major crisis within the next month in Latin America because the trends of international speculation currently focused on Argentina and Latin America. "And there is no institution that can do anything about it," he said.

Mr Tansey was answering questions after a discussion on democracy and the global environment. He said there were many instances of countries benefiting very substantially from globalisation, such as the Asian tiger economies. "Ireland itself is a bright shining light" of the benefits of globalisation, he said.

However, these are very specific cases, Mr Tansey said. "We do not see this development on a worldwide basis. Africa is left out of the equation entirely." He said the "rich world" has rigged the rules to its own advantage.

Mr Tansey said Ireland could play its part by allowing asylumseekers who have lived in the State for more than six months to work, and should create an infrastructure to allow the immigration of people from the poorest countries.

The Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, said the main answer to globalisation problems was to provide the global economy with the widespread social legitimacy it lacks today "by ensuring that the markets work for everybody, not just for some".

Mr Ken O'Brien, a former IDA economist and publisher of Finance magazine, said the IFSC had become a premier international centre, matching the Channel Islands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Bermuda. No international centre has grown so fast in the past century or come to such prominence since the 1960s.

The IFSC has grown through the improvement of the quality of Irish democracy - by cleaning up politics and increasing transparency. Its success is also due to Ireland's superb legislative and regulatory excellence, delivered by politicians of all governments in the past 13 years, matched by the public sector in partnership with the private sector, he said.

Earlier, in a debate on EU perspectives on democracy, an EU consultant, Mr David Haworth, said the Nice Treaty was a "recipe for paralysis". Far from improving EU decision-making, it would have the opposite effect.

With 15 member-states the possibility of passing a measure through the Council of Ministers has fallen below 8 per cent and with 27 members this would decline to 2.5 per cent, he said. Without a fundamental recasting of the EU's foundations there will be similar crises to Nice in the future, he said.