Ambassador Hills expressed that the best thing the United States can do to alleviate poverty, enhance global security and generate growth throughout the world is to support the new Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Hills feels that our greatest challenge is to convince a greater percentage of the public of the benefits of trade and that strong public support is critical to U.S. leadership.

Hills also highlighted the need to admit up-front that trade does cause losers as well as winners and that we must pledge to help those left behind, not by closing the doors to trade but by using some of the gains from trade to help those it displaces. She reminded the Seattle Initiative members that business leaders have an enormous opportunity to educate their employees, especially about the relationship between global poverty and global instability. She also stated that business and civic leaders should talk to Congress and should work to help change the minds of the electorate.

“Poverty creates conditions hostile to the maintenance of peace.”

-Ambassador Carla Hills