The public may know that international trade affects their daily
lives. But people have a sense of unease. They don't know exactly
how global commerce can enrich everyone or what to do when it
doesn't.
Only when people understand the power of trade, for themselves
and for others, will public support swing towards a pro-trade
agenda.
In everyday conversations, people express their worries about
unemployment and inequality, about the brain drain and immigration,
about civil conflict or environmental damage. What many people
don't know is that international trade can be part of the
solution.
Trade can create jobs and industries for poor or marginalized
communities. The freedom to trade across borders can expand
opportunities for entrepreneurs with the innovation and drive to
succeed. In countries where opportunities for development are
scarce, trade matters even more in the fight against poverty. Trade
gives poor communities the capacity to buy the services they want
or need.
In India, for example, there was a fear that liberalization in
telecommunications would bring a reduction in services,
particularly in poor rural areas with few big-spending customers
(international and long-distance national callers and business
clients). To the surprise of many, liberalization actually improved
telecoms access in rural areas and lowered rates drastically by
introducing competition. The improved services helped with
education and community development. Infrastructure development by
new companies resulted in new industries for business process
outsourcing, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
In recent years, in development circles, international trade has
been accepted as a way to reduce poverty. Yet we have not reached a
critical mass of well-informed citizens who understand the link. A
minority understands the ins and outs of trade policies. Fewer
still understand how trade development works within countries,
starting with the ability to produce goods and services that will
interest consumers around the world.
Without wider public support and understanding of international
trade and development issues, it will be hard for initiatives like
the Doha Development Agenda, Aid for Trade or the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) to succeed. What can trade development
organizations do to build up a support base for trade with the
public?
People rarely link trade with poverty reduction
In industrialized countries, understanding of poverty and
development issues remains shallow. The latest transatlantic survey
by the German Marshall Fund of the United States shows support for
free trade, but fear of job losses and reluctance to remove trade
barriers (see Has Public Support for Free Trade Reached its Peak?).
Americans and Europeans, when asked the most important reasons for
giving aid, generally put poverty alleviation, health issues and
encouraging democracy before "helping poor countries to trade". Nor
are people very aware of official development assistance and
development cooperation policies, according to a 2003 study by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Similarly,
four years after the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals,
as many as 88% of Europeans had never heard of them, according to a
survey carried out by the European Commission.
Why is awareness low?
People who could speak out about the benefits of trade have neither
done it well nor gone beyond limited circles. Trade can be a
complex issue to explain. Even where related fields should be
connected, they may not be so in practice. Leaders in trade,
development and finance in least developed countries do not always
communicate properly with each other, for example, in order to give
trade the place it deserves in development strategies (see
Getting the Framework Right). This is reflected in
education systems, press and other communications mediums that
reach the general public.
Among those who might make a difference:
- Business leaders concentrate on
making businesses viable. They are not used to advocating
collectively. But things are changing. Before the WTO Hong Kong
Ministerial Conference, the Financial Times published a letter from
executives studying at IMD, a top international business school,
who expressed concern at "the lack of business and professional
leadership on what we see as the most pressing issues of our
time".
- Trade negotiators may not want to
give away their bargaining positions. This makes it difficult for
journalists to report (see Reporting on Trade: A Kenyan
View).
- Journalists find that many trade
development stories are not "breaking news" in the way that
disease, conflicts or even controversial trade talks may be. It
takes conscious effort to find the human-interest stories in the
slow, often arduous processes to develop trade and reduce poverty
over days, months and years.
Trade issues are often too complex to convey without background
knowledge or training. Media personnel in many developing countries
lack expertise, hampering economic and political reporting,
according to a 2002 World Bank report on the role of mass media in
economic development. They may find it more difficult to reach
their public too. People in industrialized countries, for example,
are over 25 times likelier to receive a daily newspaper than
residents of African countries. Work by the Panos Institute with
developing country journalists (see
Strengthening Trade
Coverage in the Media) suggests similar findings.
- Trade organizations may not be doing
all they can to build awareness about how trade contributes to
economic and social development. Avoiding jargon and looking for
the human angles to showcase successes is not enough. While
aligning development plans to include trade is essential, such
initiatives must be matched by efforts to build public
understanding of the power of trade to transform society.
Building Awareness
What can trade development organizations do to overcome the lack of
public concern - and even hostility - resulting from the lack of
awareness on the benefits of international trade? With whom can
they communicate? Here's a checklist.
- Journalists. Without journalists on
board, reaching a broader public is impossible. A few organizations
tackle this challenge by creating training programmes for
journalists on trade policy issues. Such programmes might be
matched or expanded to incorporate export development, focusing on
case studies and human-interest stories of how trade can reduce
poverty.
- Teachers and students.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have started to develop
education programmes on trade. Oxfam is a leader in this area,
targeting teachers, children and adolescents through books, games,
posters and DVDs on topics such as fair trade, poverty and
globalization. The World Bank has a development education programme
for secondary school students and teachers about socio-economic and
environmental aspects of sustainable development. Consider
researching such programmes and exploring partnerships to develop
and test curricula on trade development issues of concern to your
country.
- Business communities. Businesses have
a dual role in raising awareness, as both learners and educators.
Many firms don't know enough about trade issues beyond their
immediate business concerns. On the other hand, informed business
coalitions play a part in influencing parliamentarians and
ministers in trade and export development strategies. There is
still great scope to expand this role, especially in developing and
transition economies. Several ITC programmes work with businesses
to help them promote their concerns to achieve a more favourable
trade environment.
© Co-op America, People & Planet, Fairtrade
Foundation
Fair trade guides
These groups use brochures and booklets to raise community
awareness..
| 
Youthink! web site
Stories, videos, photos and games from this World Bank site
sensitize youth on trade and other issues.
|
- NGOs. Many NGOs originally associated
with humanitarian relief or environmental protection are developing
advocacy programmes related to trade policy, as Trade
Forum noted in a recent issue. (See Trade for
All, Bringing in NGOs, issue 2/2006.) Opening dialogue with
these groups, and seeking common ground, may be a good place to
start.
- Trade policy-makers. Policy-makers
also have a dual role. The decision-making power of
parliamentarians gives them importance, as does their voice, in
helping the public understand the power of trade for development.
They are also lobbied from all angles. Donor agencies have their
own views on trade issues, often expressed as conditions for
recipients, and they could put part of their aid into
awareness-raising efforts directed at the public. At ITC,
programmes are in place to hook up trade policy-makers with
business advocates to educate the decision-makers about business
needs and interests in export development.
Trade unions and faith-based groups are also among the distinct
communities that can form part of a partnership to advocate for
trade.
Reaching a broader public
A strategic way to make an impact is to combine the actions of
groups under a common campaign umbrella. A recent Swedish
government campaign to raise awareness of MDGs is a case in point.
The national campaign involved government, international
institutions, universities, NGOs and private companies in Sweden.
The approach proved successful. Four years after the adoption of
the eight MDGs, 27% of Swedes were aware of them, compared to 12%
in other European Union countries.
© InterAction, Care
NGO advocacy guides
Techniques used by NGOs, mostly in development advocacy, could
be adapted by trade development professionals.Authorities planning
a campaign to increase export awareness may find their best guides
are outside the trade field. Manuals and guidelines on campaigning
and advocacy are available from InterAction, CARE, Oxfam and other
NGOs. Fair trade organizations also have manuals about raising
support for fair trade products.
A first step is to identify the partners in organizing and
rolling out a campaign. This should even precede identifying target
audiences. To increase your impact, you need to liaise with
non-traditional partners and aim for more diverse audiences.
Bringing these groups into advocacy campaigns raises their
awareness about trade and can turn them into valuable advocacy
partners.
The case for business advocacy for trade "…[T]he CEO of
every US company with international activities, however small,
should invest the time to explain to company employees - whether
they number five, 5000 or 50 000 - how globalization expands the
company's opportunities, how open markets affect the company's
revenues, and how much of the employee's paycheck comes from the
company's international activities.
"Business leaders are in a position to help change how working
Americans think about trade simply by providing them with the
facts. For example, very few Americans know that lowering trade
barriers even by a third in the Doha Round would boost the average
American's annual income by $2000 (in 2003 dollars)… Few Americans
are aware of how the Doha Round's goal of opening trade, if
achieved, would help to alleviate grinding poverty… Few are aware
that one million jobs would be created in developing countries if
just 15 million additional tonnes of sugar could be imported into
highly protected markets… with no adverse effect on either the US
domestic market or the global economy…
"By explaining such facts, business leaders could help their
employees understand that trade is the best tool [to] generate
economic growth at home and abroad, alleviate poverty and encourage
global stability."
"The Stakes of Doha," Carla A. Hills, former US Trade
Representative, in Foreign Affairs, "Freer Trade?" Special edition,
December 2005.
Research: Marija Stefanovic, ITC. Writers: N. Domeisen, P.
de Sousa, P. Hulm, M. Stefanovic.