JULY/AUGUST 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 5
T H E L A W R E N C E S U M M E R S M E M O R I A L A W A R D
THE JULY 1997 LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD* goes to the U.S.
Commerce Department and Jeffrey Garten, former U.S. undersecretary of commerce
for international trade and currently dean of the Yale School of Management.
Here are the comments which earned them this prestigious prize:
- "Tax, labor and health and safety laws and policies [in Haiti] are
theoretically universally applicable, but are not universally applied or
observed. As such, they do not distort or impede the efficient mobilization and
allocation of investment. Many in the private sector provide services (usually
health care) for their workers that are not provided by the dysfunctional state
agencies. Although voluntary, this decision could be a competitive
disadvantage." (Haiti Investment Climate, U.S. Department of Commerce, Doc.
#4708, April 1996, courtesy of the National Labor Committee.)
- "In many cases we're going to have to basically swallow hard, because we're
dealing in cultures that have rhythms that are very uncomfortable for us.
They're uncomfortable in terms of the way people are treated, or in terms of
the way the environment is treated, but to turn our back on them would be a
terrible mistake." (Jeffrey Garten, quoted in World Trade, November 1996, p.
29, courtesy of Press for Change.)
* In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy
Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and
dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you
and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty
industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" Summers wrote. "I think
the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage
country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought
that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air
quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico
City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.
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