Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I wish to sincerely thank both you, Clare, and your staff at the DFID for organizing this Ministerial Round Table on Trade and Poverty in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) -- yet another important step on the way to the 3rd UN Conference on LDCs in Brussels in May.

Let me straight away take up the aim of this Round Table, which is to highlight the important role that trade has to play in helping developing countries to

• boost their economic growth, and
• generate the resources necessary for reducing poverty.

Some of the issues we face in this respect are:

• How can we make globalization benefit the poor?
• What can be done to reverse the marginalization of the poorest countries?
• Which trade policies help to integrate LDCs into the global trading economy?
• And, last but not least, what should LDC priorities be ?

We all know the benefits of globalization, but we are also aware of the risks associated with it. Globalization is neither an unqualified blessing, nor a curse. What matters the most is what we make of it.

The social and economic deprivation suffered by many of the poorest countries is compelling testimony to the need to integrate these countries more fully into the world economy. The question is not whether to do so, but how to do so, and on what terms.

A few months ago I had the pleasure of welcoming some of you to Oslo. We focussed on another vital and closely related vehicle for development; the private sector. Obviously, in order to flourish, the private sector is dependent on market access and trade. Moreover, most trade is conducted by the private sector. Trade and investment are thus interlinked and crucial assets for sustainable economic growth. - And in an increasingly globalized world economy, increasingly so!

As investment, trade is neither sufficient in itself, nor a goal in itself, but it is a necessary means for economic growth – and in this context a powerful weapon with which to fight poverty.

Trade does not function in a vacuum. It needs an enabling environment. For developing countries - as much as for industrialized countries - an enabling environment presupposes coherent development policies. Broadly speaking, this means consistency within trade, investment and macroeconomic policies - thus ensuring a social, political and economic framework that is conducive to enterprise development and trade. An enabling environment is dependent on policies, measures and practices at the national level, as well as the broader international framework.

Trade reforms and liberalization undertaken within a comprehensive development strategy have proven to be key measures for achieving higher economic growth and poverty reduction. At the national level this is first and foremost the responsibility of the individual LDC governments. However modest their resources are, these resources must be mobilized.

This is precisely what we see happening today through the widespread establishment of national poverty reduction strategies. We need to ensure that trade issues are properly integrated into these strategies. In this respect, I welcome the cooperation between the WTO, UNCTAD, the ITC, the IMF, the World Bank and the UNDP within the Integrated Framework. It demonstrates that coherence can also work at the multilateral level.

I am pleased that several countries present here today have pledged contributions to the Integrated Framework. It pleases to confirm that Norway will contribute 500.000 dollars to its Fund.

At the global level we also face the challenges of consistency and coherence in our policies - as donor countries, as trading partners and as stakeholders in multilateral agencies that operate on our behalf. And, quite frankly, we have to admit that we can do a lot better in all these roles.

As a trading partner, the EU has recently taken an important initiative - the "everything but arms" initiative - which puts a welcome pressure on other OECD governments, including my own, to follow suit and maybe go even further.

The heart of the matter simply being: Now is the time to act. The LDC conference is only two months away. And, as recently stated in an article by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the Financial Times: "In the battle to rid the world of abject and dehumanizing poverty, the Brussels conference must mark a turning point."

Now, calls for historic turning points may often be dismissed as lofty rhetoric. But not this time, I gather – and hope. Today, I truly think we may have a political momentum that could make the Brussels conference a more memorable and politically more significant event than its two predecessors.

In any event, that must be our clear ambition.

* * *

Enough said on my part.

I now wish to present the two key speakers at this session.

Mike Moore, our second speaker, had a long and successful career behind him - both at the national and the international level - before he took over responsibility for the multilateral trade system and the WTO. He was the youngest Member of Parliament ever to be elected in New Zealand. Since that time he has championed New Zealand’s relations with the rest of the world and has done a great deal to enhance his country’s international standing. (Coming from a small country on the periphery myself, I can appreciate what a challenge that is). He has more experience than most of us in the field of multilateral trade policy, having participated in all major trade events since Punta del Este (1986). I note – with appreciation - that the development dimension is a leitmotiv for him in the trade context as well. Some of his numerous books, such as Children of the Poor and Hard Labor, also bear witness to his genuine concern for the less fortunate.

Our first speaker is a woman whose reputation has acquired a global dimension. Clare Short, our host, is a tremendous inspiration to all of us. She is both thought-provoking and action-minded. She has a very varied background; transport, the environment, social security, employment, race relations, human rights – you name it. This is reflected in the wider perspective that she consistently brings to the table - to the development dialogue. She has been - and very much remains - instrumental in shaping a fresh and radical approach to poverty reduction.

Clare, the floor is yours.