Leadership Quote by Anna Lindh

The word that does the heavy lifting here is "must" - a small, moralizing bolt driven into the polite woodwork of trade diplomacy. Anna Lindh, speaking as a European foreign minister in the late-1990s/early-2000s era of triumphalist globalization, isn’t marveling at open markets; she’s laying down a condition for their legitimacy. "Nonetheless" signals a pivot: yes, trade is expanding, negotiations are humming, tariffs are falling - but don’t pretend the scoreboard is neutral. Someone is winning, and too often it isn’t the countries being urged to liberalize fastest.

The intent is strategic as much as ethical. By framing benefits as something developing countries must be able to "reap", Lindh puts the burden on the international system, not just on domestic reformers in the Global South. It’s a rebuke to the old bargain: rich countries preach free trade while protecting agriculture, subsidizing exporters, and treating intellectual property as sacred. The subtext is: if the rules are written by and for the wealthy, "trade" becomes a branding exercise for extraction.

Context matters. This is post-Cold War Europe selling globalization as a peace project, even as protests against the WTO and structural adjustment were mainstreaming the critique that open markets can deepen inequality. Lindh’s line tries to rescue the idea by insisting on distribution, not just growth. She’s arguing that trade without credible access, safeguards, and fairness isn’t integration - it’s incorporation on someone else’s terms.