Calvin Dooley: “as our world's economy makes the transition from an industrial-based economy to one that is information based, what we…”

“as our world's economy makes the transition from an industrial-based economy to one that is information based, what we are finding increasingly is that geography is going to become less important. We are going to find that national borders are no longer going to be barriers to the flow of information, to the flow of commerce, and to the flow of new ideas. What is important for us to understand, as globalization takes hold, is that we have these international bodies that can develop the rules of the road that can ensure that we can have a level of certainty in terms of how international laws related to trade can be effectively and equitably implemented. There is no country that has more at risk in this endeavor as the United States, with our country only having 4 percent of the world's population, 96 percent of the world's population outside our borders, when we look at the fact that we consume 25 percent of all the world's GDP. It is important for us to understand that we have more at risk than any country in terms of the opportunities that a consistent set of rules that help to guide international trade provide us. I also would make a strong case that, for those of us who are very interested in seeing how we can advance issues related to human rights, how we can advance issues that can elevate labor and environmental standards, is that the WTO has the potential to be one of the most effective vehicles in order to achieve that outcome.”