The problem of course is that there are barriers and weaknesses in the labour and other markets which prevent everybody from benefiting from increasingly open trade, or which delay the return to the grandchildren's generation. For workers and employers in industries facing a long-term decline in their comparative advantage, it is not easy or possible sometimes to make the transition to new growth areas. Likewise, for workers in countries able to exploit a new market opening, barriers to basic rights at work hold back needed and affordable improvements in working conditions. Sound labour market policies and respect for fundamental principles, in both types of country create the conditions for reducing trade barriers. In conclusion, let me turn to the word focus and the goal of democratic, equitable and sustainable increases in living standards.
Most people earn their living through work.
What we have found at the ILO is that a focus on decent work for all is an extremely useful way of identifying what really matters for people-oriented development. The work place is also the starting point of the many inter-linked chains of production that make up our globalized world. It is the place where the world of money and economics meets people with all their aspirations and fears, values and dignity. The pace of globalization over the past years has, in my view, knocked out of kilter the delicate balancing mechanisms needed to reconcile economic flexibility and social security. They need recalibrating or rebuilding for an ever more dependent world.