Commentary on Session I - Migration, Trade, and Development: Proceedings of a conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, October 6, 2006

I nternational trade has become a contentious topic in many industrial democracies, including the United States. In sharp contrast to earlier periods, President Bush was barely able to secure fast track or trade promotion authority in the Trade Act of 2002. In the end, the act survived three votes in the House of Representatives, twice by a one-vote margin and once by three votes. Trade has also become more complex. It is no longer possible to think in terms of a developing world with largely homogenous interests. As the New York Times once noted, the world is now made up of the haves, the have some, and the have nots. Even the Brazil-led Group of Twenty that includes key emerging-market economies has significantly varied interests. Like trade, migration has also become a more controversial subject in the United States and much of Europe. The current debate in the United States revolves around the question of legal and illegal status and whether immigrants are highly educated or less well educated. Some observers are concerned about whether the traditional melting pot model will continue to work. In Europe, the debate includes the pace of internal, European Union immigration as well as the growing number of Muslim immigrants from Africa. In the early twenty-first century, there has also been a renewed focus on the importance of fostering more rapid growth in the developing world. In November 2001, the World Trade Organization launched the Doha Development Agenda as the latest round of multilateral trade negotiations. The emphasis on development was, in part, recognition that many of the least-developed countries felt that they had gained little from the last set of negotiations, the Uruguay Round.