'Fight Poverty As You Would Terror'

Rich countries should see global poverty as an enemy that must be fought just as they have banded together to fight international terror, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said Wednesday.

He urged these nations to double foreign aid over the next five years, tear down trade barriers and eliminate agricultural subsidies that rob poor countries of markets for their products.

Wolfensohn spoke in advance of a March 18-22 international conference on financing development in Monterrey, Mexico, that President Bush and other world leaders will attend.

In a speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, Wolfensohn said that since the Sept. 11 attacks the world has acted strongly to confront terrorism and increase security.

But "we will not create that better and safer world with bombs and brigades alone," he said. "We will not win the peace until we have the foresight, courage and political will to redefine the war."

Wolfensohn rated poverty as the greatest long-term challenge the world faces.

While it does not necessarily lead to violence, he said, it can "provide a breeding ground for the ideas and actions of those who promote conflict and terror."

Wolfensohn said it is time to tear down the wall that divides the rich world from the poor. He said the September attacks started that process, but more effort is needed.

"It is time ... to recognize that in this unified world, poverty is our collective enemy," he said. "Poverty is the war we must fight. ... Its existence is like a cancer, weakening the whole body, not just the parts that are directly affected."

He said he recognizes that tight budgets make it impossible for wealthy nations to double aid to poor countries overnight.

These nations could help poor countries trying to improve their economies and citizens' lives, however, "with a phased-in increase in aid, say an additional $10 billion a year for the next five years, building to an extra $50 billion a year in year five."

He said rich countries also must move toward trade openness, "recognizing that without market access poor countries cannot fulfill their potential no matter how good their (economic) policies."

He said that in the face of powerful political lobbies ranged against such openness, political leaders should remind voters of benefits they receive from free trade, which are far greater than the short-term adjustments would cost.

"Rich countries must take action to cut agricultural subsidies that rob poor countries of markets for their products," Wolfensohn said.

He said these subsidies, which total hundreds of millions of dollars annually, go to a relatively small number of agribusinesses, many of them large corporations.

"Agriculture subsidies constitute a heavy burden on the citizens of developing countries," Wolfensohn said. "With skillful political leadership, they can be cut back."

By Harry Dunphy