On the 22 October, Professor Karl-Heinz Paqué, Liberal International (LI) Deputy President and Chair of LI’s Fair Trade Working Group, moderated the event Fireside Chat: Securing Multilateralism, promoting development after COVID, with Hon. Bill Morneau. The discussion was opened by Prof. Paqué, who thanked the participant and promoted LI’s newly founded Fair Trade Working Group, which especially profited from this discussion, and went on to present the participant, Hon. Bill Morneau.
Hon. Bill Morneau is a Canadian politician and businessman who served as Canada’s Minister of Finance between 2015-2020, administering tariffs and financial regulations, representing at G7 and G20 Summits, in addition to serving as Governor of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Now, he is a candidate for the position of Secretary-General at OECD.
Hon. Bill Morneau has also led an initiative with the United Nations Human Rights Council to open a school for refugee girls in Kenya, become the first Finance Minister crowned International Gender Champion, and introduced a circulation banknote featuring civil-rights activist Viola Desmond, the first Canadian woman and the first Black woman on a banknote.
“OECD is going through a change,” Morneau emphasised, when moderator Prof. Paqué asked Morneau about his ideas for OECD, pointing out the fact of the latest OECD Secretary-General being elected in 2006, when there was increasing globalisation and the intergovernmental economic organisation Group of 8. Now, the populist movements against globalisation and nationalistic politics have increased, while the Group of 8 has excluded Russia, becoming the Group of 7.
“What is critically important for policymakers and for the broader advantage of multilateralism is, we find a way to make sure we understand what our opportunities are for working together.” – Hon. Bill Morneau
‘’The OECD must be aggressive on climate change.’’, Morneau started, and continued explaining OECD’s opportunities as a leading global organisation, stating the possibilities of pushing initiatives of climate-friendly policies, such as investments in infrastructure that enable greener economies. Hon. Morneau himself, pushed for the Carbon Tax policy in Canada, which is a remarkable outcome in a resource-rich country and wants to show the world the effectiveness of carbon pricing.
“I would be a strong advocate for continued engagement with China, but engagement under terms that are carefully negotiated” – Hon, Bill Morneau.
Most importantly, OECD’s Secretary-General will lead the way in guiding the economies through the pandemic, referring to the Canadian example of taking care of those that fell off from their security net due to the pandemic. He made a point of the US being a bad example of supporting next generation, especially women, youth and less advantaged. If elected, Morneau talked on how OECD could be the main organisation for distributing and analysing information on COVID-strategies, helping economies make effective decision-making in time – we need more of evidence-based solutions.
“International institution representatives spend a lot of time thinking of government policies, not as much on working on together with the private sector.” – Hon. Bill Morneau
Hon. Bill Morneau also talked also about economic engagement with China, increase of digitalisation and taxation of tech giants and mobilising private sector capital to invest.
The elected OECD Secretary-General will begin their five-year term of office on 1 June 2021.
Professor Karl-Heinz Paqué concluded the event by wishing Hon. Bill Morneau good luck in the election process and labelled the selection of Hon. Morneau a great gain for liberals worldwide.
