Inequality between countries and within countries has sharply increased in recent decades. Millions of people all over the world will log on, turn on or pick up to read what is being negotiated on their behalf. So this great debate is welcome. But we must keep it balanced. We need to steer clear of some of its wilder expressions opposed to trade in any form.
Trade is a motor of economic wealth.
But we also need to be wary of those multinationals and politicians who advocate trade liberalisation as an end in itself. That poses a real threat to international environmental treaties when they conflict with WTO rules. This is a clash of international jurisdictions. This needs to be urgently clarified by a WTO agreement recognising the supremacy of the 70-odd international environmental treaties painstakingly negotiated to protect our planet and the species which live on it. If it does not deliver on some of its promises, it will find its legitimacy in serious question.