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"Globalization and transatlantic partnership"
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ford's system made automobiles so cheap that the workers who built them
were also able lo buy them. Let me remind you of just a couple of them: Today the traditional industrial centre of Detroit is a byword for production
within the global network. Its name is closely connected with those of
other cities. Let me mention three links between cities in Germany and
the US: A look at a current model on offer from an American manufacturer will demonstrate this: The steering column, sensors and spark plugs come from Japan. The windscreen wipers, suspension, steering wheel, brakes, drive shaft, headlarnps. camshaft, pistons, central locking and the sunroof come from Germany. By the way, the sunroof actually comes from my home town, Wuppertal. The rubber seals and interior door cladding with the handles are supplied from Spain. The return valves and some switches are built in the UK. France is responsible for the oil filter exchanger. Gradually you must be wondering whether any parts at all are still made in America. Well, yes: the seats, the instrument panel, the radio, the upholstery material, the rear lights and of course the ability to design a modem car popular around the world and to put it together from many individual parts. Now what does this American but still international car say about the America of today? Is it a typical American car? Or is it a global car? Across the world cars are symbols of prosperity, progress and mobility. People all over the world get excited about cars. Cars arouse emotions and desires. The global fascination exerted by the automobile notwithstanding all the problems a car might cause can certainly help to ensure that in future people throughout the world will associate globalization with these positive values: prosperity, progress and liberty. V. Our policies are oriented towards people. This idea what is appropriate for people? should guide us when we speak about car production and improvements to the production process. For production despite all the automation and rationalization is about the people who live in Detroit, or in Bochum, Tokyo or Stuttgart, in Puebla, Turin or Shanghai. Globalization inevitably means that the company names, the machinery, parts and products, are becoming global. But the people usually stay rooted in one place. They are German, American, Spanish, French, Mexican, Japanese... These people love their families, they do not want to give up their music, their food or their favorite sports team. Globalization offers us a tremendous opportunity to create greater prosperity for all people. Again and again, however, we see that the market and competition do not of themselves ensure that as many people as possible rather than just a few profit from this opportunity. We all recall the critical, even self critical, voices at this year's World Economic Forum in New York. It was indeed remarkable that the IMF itself presented assessments which previously would have been voiced at most by its critics. IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler criticized the industrial countries' protectionism, subsidies and egotistical trade policy. International relations, he said, cannot consist of the large nations reaching agreements and the developing countries not having a look in. The Director General of the WTO, Mike Moore, said he shared 80% of the arguments of his opponents by which he meant the critics of globalization. The economist Paul Krugman said at the meeting in New York that the big industrial countries lack an awareness of their shared responsibility for a positive development of the global economy. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize winning economists gave what I regard as a very convincing picture of how everything that has to come together in the globalized world fits together: market democracy, freedom and justice. The freedom of the people, according to Sen, is a greater value than the decision in favor of market freedom. In Sen's view we should never judge the market merely from the point of view of its results, impressive as they may be, but we should always ask: is everyone free to participate in the market, or are some people excluded? As democrats we must not accept the fact that the global market apparently brings with it inevitabilities and inherent laws which restrict freedom, democracy and justice for many. The market must be in the service of freedom, in the service of the people. The ideas and experience of many people, their intelligence, their know how, their hands and their ability to work in a team to my mind these are the most important of the many components that go to make up every car. To develop all this, however, we really do need open markets, not just all the rhetoric. The worldwide opening of the markets must be based on rules valid worldwide. It may surprise some of you to know that even Adam Smith pointed this out: the market needs a framework and today it must fix the social and ecological conditions for economic activity. Without rules any market will collapse and that would be in the interests of neither the people nor the prosperity of nations. The worldwide openness of today's markets is a huge opportunity and we can use this opportunity in the interest and for the benefit of the people. If we succeed in this, we will also be able to attain the great goal of establishing freedom and democracy worldwide. This is the new, topical challenge of the old democratic and old industrial traditions, which your country particularly embodies. This goal links us in lasting friendship across the Atlantic. VI. Transatlantic relations will be decisive if we seek to successfully master the challenges facing us in our one world. our relationship is based on a solid foundation. Of course, like all close relationships, it can only function i f we continue to take care to nurture it. We are linked by shared values, personal ties and intensive trade. 60% of foreign investment in the United States comes from the European Union, and 45% of American investment abroad goes to Europe. The European Union and the United States are the world's closest linked economic areas. Our cooperation within the framework of the United Nations, NATO and the OSCE reflects our conviction that the great challenges of international policy making can best be met through joint action. Two new factors will help determine the relationship between the US and Europe in future: one new element in transatlantic relations is the euro, which was successfully introduced in Europe on January I this year with no great problems. A single currency zone has been created which is home to almost exactly as many people as the US. Thus the European Union has been given a symbol of integration which is visible and tangible to every individual. I am convinced that the euro will become, like the dollar, a strong, internationally valued currency for investments, transactions and reserves. The euro will be followed by the enlargement of the European Union. The aim is to extend political stability and economic and social security to the countries of Central and SouthEastern Europe. Europe is thus also making a substantial contribution towards global security, as it is also with its comprehensive support for economic and social development in the countries of the Mediterranean. Europe will find its identity in a very particular way through integration and globalization. Given our specific social traditions, this will happen in a different way than in the United States. In Germany in particular we have had good experience with cooperation between employers and employees; without the trade unions the German economic miracle would have been impossible, without the trade unions we would not enjoy today the level of prosperity and social peace which many other states envy. Europe can draw strength from its continuing integration if the Europeans are prepared to continue resolutely along this path. Then we will in future be able to shoulder responsibility at international level along with the United States. Europe and the US are strategic partners when it comes to promoting and defending democracy and human rights, freedom and justice. German policy aims at a self confident, strong Europe which tackles its interests and recognizes its responsibility for the world. The success of future action economic and political lies not in shutting ourselves off or in making lonely decisions. The use of military means in particular must be accepted worldwide if it is to have lasting success. That is why it was so important that the American response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 followed careful consultations and was legitimated by the United Nations Security Council. That was how the impressive global coalition against terrorism was formed. Globalization does not mean that the strong is strongest alone. The partners must be prepared to speak to each other, to listen to each other but then also to act together. Self confident and friendly dealings with each other that is a prospect I find very appealing. In his State of the Union address on January 30, President Bush said, and I quote: "... we must prevent the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world." I can only agree. What could be more obvious than to strengthen the relevant arms control agreements and use them as effective anti terrorism instruments? VII. The heinous attacks of September 11 gave our partnership a very new significance.. Transatlantic relations have become more of a political focus, have become closer and clearer in many aspects. We are now looking beyond the immediate threat. We wonder what moves people to approve of such murderous acts. I agree with Secretary of State Colin Powell, who pointed out at the World Economic Forum in New York that we must not regard the fight against terrorism and its causes merely as a military challenge. We must fight the fight equally resolutely on a civil front and eliminate poverty, desperation and hopelessness, as Colin Powell said. Where people experience democracy, freedom and justice, they will resist the temptations of terrorism. That is why we also need a global coalition against hunger and destitution. In the past, the policies pursued by America and its partners have always been particularly successful when they depended not only on economic and military might, but also on the power of conviction of their concepts and ideas. only in this way could the East West conflict be overcome peacefully. We were determined to defend ourselves and to undertake the necessary endeavors. We pinned our hopes on the CSCE and a policy of understanding, as well as diplomatic instruments and the power of dialogue. We should trust in these again today in seeking to establish the ideal of a liberal and fair economic and social order throughout the world. In the globalized society there is only joint security. We in Germany in particular have seen that it is not walls and weapons that provide lasting protection against a threat, but freedom, prosperity and democracy. In Berlin we are reminded every day of what the power of these values can achieve when we drive through the Brandenburg Gate, which was reopened twelve years ago. This concept of freedom and justice is also proclaimed in the inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty, which welcomes all those people who have left their home countries because of economic necessity or political persecution: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." That is the heart of the message which should go out from every freedom loving nation: it is the free states which stand together in an alliance against terrorism and which form a global alliance against hunger, poverty and persecution. Combining freedom, democracy and joint security with the advantages of a global market. that is the huge task of the future. To this end we need self confidence and respect for the ideas of other cultures. To this end we need clear values and standards, but no enemy ideology. I am confident that we can meet this task so that the dream which unites America and Europe can become a reality for people all over the world.
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