FM seeks low farm barriers

Protectionist barriers on agriculture products and restrictions on movement of people from the developing countries to the developed world can prevent the gains of globalisation from reaching desired destinations, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said.

In his address at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin yesterday, Chidambaram referred to the "unfair" attitude of some countries towards expansion of trade and business.

He said, "Many advanced nations continue to impose protectionist barriers on goods such as agriculture products which offer the best export opportunities to developing countries. We are also worried about the sharp rise in barriers on the movement of people from developing countries to advanced nations."

The minister pointed out that while goods, capital and knowledge markets across the world had become fairly interdependent, labour was yet to witness such assimilation.

"The perceived lack of labour mobility across the world has important ramifications for economic prospects of countries, where efficient skilled labour forms the main source of comparative advantage. The stark contrast between the effortlessness with which capital can move while labour cannot has made globalisation a contentious subject and has imparted to it a somewhat undesirable 'pro-rich' flavour," he said.

Chidambaram said it was important for poor countries to approach globalisation in a carefully calibrated manner. "Policy flexibility for securing the advantages of globalisation is a must," he said.