Superpowers slammed over crunch crisis

The WTO has criticized the US and Europe over their roles in the global credit crunch…

In a recent interview, Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organisation  blamed the lack of regulation in world markets for the financial crisis which has hit world economic growth.

Mr Lamy argued that "a little more prudential regulation" could have helped prevent the banking crisis that has engulfed the US and Europe, adding: “The fundamental problem is that there is no international consensus on how to regulate the rapidly changing world financial markets or who should be the regulator.

Mr Lamy also sounded a warning over the continued world slowdown: “There is no doubt that the effects of the global financial crisis are extremely serious, especially for the US and Europe. World economic growth and world trade are both slowing sharply”.

Mr Lamy did have something positive to say though: The growing economic power of emerging market countries such as Brazil, China, and India is a crucial counter-weight to the slowdown in the rich countries. This would not have been possible without the expansion of free trade”.