"By 2011, anti-globalization rhetoric had largely faded, and globalization is thought of as not something to be neither fought nor cheered, but as a fundamental characteristic of the human story, in which disparate geographies and diverse themes are inextricably intertwined. In short, globalization has lost its polemical bite, and with that loss, its attractions as a concept have faded."
Meanwhile, WTO DG Pascal Lamy feels the need to defend trade as a positive influence on people's lives:
"Around the world, extreme poverty is in retreat. The World Bank estimates that an unprecedented 550 million people escaped abject poverty over the last decade. The percentage of people around the world living on $1.25 per day has fallen from 43 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent today. For the first time in history, less than half of Africans are below the poverty line. Trade has been an important reason why. Expanded trade in countries like China, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Chile is a major part of government growth and poverty alleviation efforts.
So why is this story not getting out? We at the WTO accept our share of the blame. We can and will do better at explaining how trade improves the lives of most people around the world. Governments and universities need to do more as well. And, frankly, businesses need to lift their play as well. It is companies, after all, which engage in trade, which seek new markets and which benefit from access gained to those markets."
