14 November 2005
Tony Blair has told guests at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet that there can be no security or prosperity at home without first dealing with the problems of conflict, terrorism, climate change and poverty.
In a speech focusing on trade, Mr Blair stressed that the world had a chance to build on the progress made during the Gleneagles G8 summit, at next month’s ‘Doha development’ round of talks in Hong Kong.
Doha is an opportunity to ‘tackle some of the most fundamental injustices at the heart of world trade’, he said, including agriculture, non-agricultural market access, and services. This will help millions of people escape poverty.
The UK would treble trade aid to £100 million a year by 2010, he announced, as he urged the other G8 nations to do the same.
The PM added that the world was integrating ‘at a fast rate, with enormous economic, cultural and political consequences.’
But with globalisation, Mr Blair said, came the need for ’stronger and more effective global, multilateral action’ to tackle the biggest problems facing the modern world.
He concluded:
"Agreement on trade is also a metaphor for today’s world. Trade increases prosperity. Prosperity gives people and nations a stake in the future. Such a stake shows how we gain by helping and not harming each other… we will reap what we sow; live with what we do not act to change."
The Lord Mayor’s Banquet is held at the Guildhall in honour of the immediate past mayor, and is the first to be hosted by the new Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Traditionally, the Prime Minister makes a major world affairs speech at the event.
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