99-5163 MOREPRESS RELEASE
PRESS/153
30 November 1999
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE HEADS OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF),
THE WORLD BANK, AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO)
Mr. Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the IMF, Mr. James D. Wolfensohn,
President of the World Bank, and Mr. Mike Moore, Director-General of the WTO,
have issued this joint statement to the Third WTO Ministerial Conference.
During the past two years, which have been difficult for many of our member countries, the
multilateral trading system has been an anchor of strength and stability in the world economy.  Its
rules are an essential element of the framework for international economic policy cooperation.  Thedamaging economic and social effects of financial crisis have been felt widely, yet the consequences
would have been far worse if the crisis had provoked a protectionist trade response.  A broad-based
recovery in world economic activity and a return to macroeconomic stability is now underway.  In
these circumstances, it is important that resort to restrictive trade measures continues to be resisted
firmly, and that further steps are taken to open markets and enhance competition  in order to strengthen
the contribution of trade to poverty alleviation and development.
Poverty afflicts an intolerably large proportion of the world’s population.  The evolution
towards a more open, integrated and competitive global economy offers great potential for fostering
growth and the economic and social development needed to eradicate poverty.  But the human andsocial benefits of economic globalization do not accrue automatically, and globalization presents
particular challenges for the poorest countries.  Supporting their efforts to integrate more fully into the
world economy is an urgent task for the international community, and one to which our three
organisations are strongly committed.
All WTO Members will benefit from increased participation of developing countries in trade.
We shall build on the strong collaboration between our three organisations to enhance the capacity of
developing countries to use the new trade negotiations, and their membership in the WTO, to foster
their economic and social development.  Trade, and trade policy reform, must be made more effective
tools for poverty reduction, particularly in the poorest countries, and we intend to increase our supportfor countries to use the opportunities offered by the global economy as key elements of their strategies
for poverty reduction and development.  The World Bank Comprehensive Development Framework,
and Bank and Fund efforts to develop Poverty Reduction Strategies together with countries and other
development partners, can be used to link the economic, social and environmental implications of
trade to the design and implementation of comprehensive and coherent policy, institutional and
investment responses.PRESS/153
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ENDTrade liberalization and trade policy reform, despite their long-run benefits, require economic
adjustment with its consequences for employment and other economic and social outcomes.  We stand
ready to assist countries to tackle the adjustment  process, and to build-in the necessary social and
economic policy responses, through policy analysis, developing safety nets, financial support, and
technical assistance.  Development partners of countries engaged in the process of adjusting to trade
reforms should also contribute to this effort, mo st importantly by ensuring an adequate flow of
financial resources to developing countries to allow their economic and social development
programmes to be tackled comprehensively
New WTO negotiations offer an excellent opportunity for governments collectively to renew
their commitment to a comprehensive liberalisation of international trade.  We call on WTO Members
to be ambitious and far-sighted in setting their ne gotiating objectives.  The negotiations have the
potential to yield results that improve the functioning of the world economy and create greateropportunities for developing countries.  In particular, there are large potential gains to be had from
further multilateral liberalization of trade in those goods and services that are of particular  export
interest to developing countries.  Efforts to secure  greater market access for all products of developing
countries has been welcomed warmly by finance and development Ministers at the Annual
IMF/World Bank Meetings.
Trade liberalization has proceeded, both through implementation of the Uruguay Round
results and subsequent WTO agreements on telecommunications and financial services and on
information technology products, as well as through autonomous trade reform efforts.  These efforts
are providing a valuable source of productivity growth in the world economy.  We encouragegovernments to continue to undertake trade libera lization and the related policy reforms needed to
correct structural weaknesses and market distortions in their economies. We believe that the value of
autonomous trade liberalisation initiatives should be recognized in the WTO negotiating process.
These initiatives contribute to the expansion of world trade, and convey real benefits not only to the
countries taking them but also to their trading partners.  This should be clearly acknowledged in theforthcoming WTO negotiations , by crediting countries  which  bind their  autonomous trade
liberalization  under WTO rules.
As national economies become more inter-dependent, fostering poverty reduction through
sustained, broadly shared, high quality growth depends to an important extent on inter-governmentalcooperation to ensure that trade, finance, macroeconomic and development policies are mutually
supporting.  The IMF, the World Bank and the WTO have special responsibilities to assist our
member governments in this regard, and we will continue to work together closely, under our
Cooperation Agreements, to help them increase th e coherence of economic policy-making.  Support
for developing countries, and particularly for the poorest among them, in the new WTO negotiations
will be a priority focus of our cooperation.  We welcome guidance from our member Governments on
other areas that they would wish to see us address.