Trade and the UN Millennium Goals

The goals of the UN’s Millennium Summit plan include halving the world’s extreme poverty, ending the spread of HIV and malaria, reducing the mortality rate for children under five by two-thirds, and reducing by three-quarters the maternal mortality rate by the year 2015.

How much progress has been made? The 2003 Human Development Report notes that there was sustained economic development in the 1990s, with China and India as notable achievers. China reduced the number of citizens living on less than $1 a day by almost 50%. In India the reduction was from almost half to one third of the total population. Botswana made strides in education and health far exceeding expectations based on income. From an enrollment of less than half, 91% of its children are now in school, though AIDS may jeopardize these gains. Sri Lanka has increased life expectancy considerably. South Africa has doubled the number of people with access to safe water. Focus and political will can pay off.

The report also exposes failures. In spite of the sustained economic growth of the 1990s, 54 developing countries ended the decade poorer than they began. And far from achieving universal health care by 2000, millions were still dying of diseases which are both preventable and treatable.

Investing in basic needs is not just desirable, it is a key to economic growth. Growth cannot be sustained without clinics, schools, and roads. What are the major obstacles worldwide? Debt burdens, corruption, civil wars, bad governance, and AIDS all contribute. But a very significant problem is the injustice and inequality in the world’s trading system. The richer countries talk of free trade but the reality is extremely unfair trade, with rules carefully rigged against poor countries. Through complex trade agreements the US and Europe force poor countries to import industrial goods and services, and fail to reciprocate by importing farm products which poor countries are able to produce. The US, Europe, and Japan subsidize their richer farmers, allowing them to produce foods in ways that make it impossible for Third World farmers to compete. While a billion people struggle to survive on $1 a day, the European Union subsidizes each cow at an average of $2 a day. The developed world’s $320 billion in farm subsidies dwarfs its $50 billion in development assistance. Its generosity is hardly overwhelming.

After this article was written, the World Trade Organization’s summit took place in Mexico. It ended with no agreement, but developing countries found a united voice to challenge western agricultural subsidies and demand fairer terms. More details of the Millennium goals and the Human Development Report for 2003 can be found on www.un.org and www.undp.org/hdr2003. Sylvain and Phyllis Ehrenfeld are IHEU Representatives to the UN and the AEU’s National Service Conference.