Re: Trade Justice

I recently attended a Church Service on the theme of peace. It also included information about the unfairness of world trade and the adverse effects of current trade rules on developing countries. True peace can only be brought about through global justice.

The Government has recently said that it would not sign any trade proposal that it did not believe to be in the interests of developing countries. However, I hope that the Government is not acting in a paternalistic way towards developing countries when signing up to trade agreements but is listening very carefully to what developing countries believe to be in their own best interests.

It was disappointing that the international trade talks collapsed in Mexico. The World Trade Organisation must be reformed and not allowed to become an irrelevance. Poor countries stand a better chance of achieving fairer trade rules through multilateral negotiations.

Please use the meetings being held in Geneva to champion trade justice for poor countries. In particular:

v Further cuts in Europe’s farm subsidies and special rules to protect farmers in poor countries

v The exclusion, as recommended by Parliament’s International Development Committee, of any new issues from the WTO’s agenda.

I look forward to hearing from you with good news of decisions that are in the interests of developing countries and that give them trade justice.

Yours sincerely,