Resolution on the Davos World Economic Forum and Porto Alegre world social Forum

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the World economic Forum at Davos and the World Social forum at Porto Alegre, stating that globalisation must be accompanied by greater efforts to reduce poverty. Parliament endorsed the fundamental principle that free trade, entrepreneurship, competition, sustainable development and the use of new technologies are the main means to create long-term sustainable economic growth in the world. Liberal democracy respecting human rights (including core labour standards), the rule of law and private property, combined with an open market economy without trade barriers, are essential for improving economic growth and raising standards of living in developing countries. It is crucial to build trade capacity in developing countries, so that they may benefit from globalisation trends. This involves the development of their basic physical infrastructures, including information technology. Parliament also stated that the governments of developing countries must look to form partnerships with the private sector as they move towards trade liberalisation. The European Parliament called for equitable international trade to reduce poverty and felt that this required comprehensive private-sector development strategies. In this sense, much of international trade policy, as conducted by the industrialised world, must take more account of the need for fair access for developing countries to world markets. Parliament also gave strong backing to the principle of sustainable development: trade rules and their implementation should support rather than contradict the effective implementation of environmental, social, health, consumer protection and economic objectives. Trade should actively promote ecologically sustainable production and consumption by providing positive incentives, technical assistance and capacity-building in developing countries. Parliament stated its firm belief that no international gathering to consider the world economic order, international trade, the situation of developing countries or globalisation can afford to ignore the environmental consequences of all of these policy sectors. Sustainable development has to be the cornerstone of these policies if we are to cater for the economic and environmental wellbeing of future generations.�