(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama is calling on the world’s wealthiest nations to act quickly to provide aid and responsible lending to some of the world’s poorest countries, arguing that these steps, along with related global intervention, will boost trade and the world economy.
 
“We have an economic, security, and moral obligation to extend a hand to countries and people who face the greatest risk,” Obama said in a commentary article that ran in 31 newspapers around the world Tuesday.
 
“If we turn our backs on them, the suffering caused by this crisis will be enlarged, and our own recovering will be delayed because markets for our goods will shrink further and more American jobs will be lost,” he said.
 
Obama’s commentary comes in advance of the Group of 20 conference scheduled for April 2 in London. The G-20 is made up of 19 of the wealthiest nations and the European Union, while the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization will also have representatives at the meeting.
  
“The G-20 should quickly deploy resources to stabilize emerging markets, substantially boost the emergency capacity of the International Monetary Fund and help regional development banks accelerate lending,” Obama’s commentary said. “Meanwhile, America will support new and meaningful investments in food security that can help the poorest weather the difficult days that will come.”
 
Emerging markets are often defined as underdeveloped countries mostly in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. These include undemocratic countries. The FTSE Global Equity Index includes Bahrain, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Romania, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and other smaller countries as “frontier” emerging countries. It actually includes G-20 members Argentina, China and Russia in its list of “secondary” emerging countries.
 
Sending money to certain foreign dictatorships or corrupt regimes is not always the best investment of U.S. tax dollars, said John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pro-free-market think tank.
 
“It’s often not productive if it just gets embezzled,” Berlau told CNSNews.com. “Also, if it happens, it shouldn’t be with strings attached that require a big government agenda. That can be destructive to the economies of these countries if they have potential for emerging markets.”
 
Obama’s call would primarily help strengthen trade, said Daniella Markheim, trade policy analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation, who thinks such an initiative could be a good investment to revive the global economy.
 
“It is tough for developing countries to import and export goods with a lack of financial funds,” Markheim told CNSNews.com.
 
Making more funding available to these countries through the IMF to improve trade would not change the U.S. trade policy toward despotic regimes, Markheim said.
 
“It’s not picking and choosing which countries to trade with,” Markheim said. “It enables more countries to trade. Even if it is trade with countries that do not have a great political system, looking at this from a micro level, people at the lower level benefit from trade even when we might not agree with their governments.”
 
Obama seems to be in agreement with European leaders on taking a collaborative approach, as the world economy is suffering.
 
On Feb. 22, officials from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic met in Berlin and agreed on a “charter of sustainable economic activity.”
 
This plan would be “based on market forces but prevent excess and ultimately lead to the establishment of a global governance structure,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, according to the Associated Press. 
 
At the same Berlin conference, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, “A new system of regulation without sanctions wouldn’t have any meaning.” The plan also includes actions against “tax havens,” while strengthening the IMF.
 
These are all topics that Obama mentioned in his Tuesday commentary.
 
“Only coordinated international action can prevent the irresponsible risk-taking that caused this crisis,” the president wrote. “That is why I am committed to seizing this opportunity to advance comprehensive reforms of our regulatory and supervisory framework.”
 
The commentary, entitled “A Time for Global Action,” appeared in 31 newspapers with circulation in Arab countries, Europe, South America and Asia. It was distributed by Tribune Media and also ran in the Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.
 
“I know that America bears our share of responsibility for the mess that we will face,” Obama wrote. “But I also know that we need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people.”