Blair Calls on Rich Nations to Open Their Markets

Blair is using his pulpit to convince the developed countries to open their markets to products from the poorest countries. I hope Blair raises both fair working conditions and environmental concerns during the discussions.
For the poorest countries, whose labour costs are low but who often find the very high tariffs selling into the wealthy countries' markets, it is essential if they're to stand on their own two feet that they're allowed access into our markets.

So if we fail at Hong Kong to move this on... we will do damage, not strangely just to the poor countries, though obviously that is one of the main purposes of this trade round, but we'll also damage our own country and other European countries.

We'll damage the prospects in America and Japan. So this is a situation in which the wealthy world and the developing world has a lot to gain from trading with each other.

The US actually has helped countries (such as Bangladesh) by setting aside part of its garment imports for poor countries. Free Trade agreements are one piece, we also need the anti-sweatshop movement to monitor working conditions, the environmental NGO's to monitor pollution. Finally, we need to allocate some of our purchase dollars to support the good companies.