Sir David Manning Speaks to the Indianapolis Economic Club
Tom and Sue Peine again graciously
invited Beverly and me to a meeting of the Indianapolis Economic Club on
Monday, September 25, 2006 to hear Sir David
Manning, the British Ambassador to the United States since September 2003.
He has served as Key Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair
since 2001. Earlier assignment have taken him to consulates in Mexico,
Poland, India, France, Russia, Israel and Belgium, which constitutes
wide-ranging experience in some of the foreign policy hot spots of recent
times.
As a a career diplomat of 34 years and
spoke eloquently and diplomatically about world trace and the need to
maintain open and trade and economies to sustain security in a dangerous
world.
He spoke longer than most guests, but
it was well worth it as he gave a seasoned and experienced outlook on the
world’s global economy which has morphed most unexpectedly in the past
decade making some very poor countries economic powerhouses that have
recently shifted the world’s balance of power.
He started by saying that the area of
greatest poverty is African and it will need 250-300 billion to bring it out
of it’s terrible economic condition. (It will actually more than money to
make the changes it needs to be become viable). Africa is more than just
letting things happen
He said that an accelerated track
towards progress is trade, open markets He cited that when the Smoot Hawley
act in the 1930’s set high tariffs and made the United States protectionist
and was a factor in the Great Depression.
In his speech his cited three issues
of concern:
- Attitude of US
Congress. Don’t let trade become a partisan issue and cave in to special
interest groups.
- Giving comfort
to protectionists
- Agricultural price supports distort economics. A high level of price support for the agricultural sector is undesirable.
He ended by saying that it is
ever more important to maintain good relationships with all.