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Action Card Briefing – May 2005

TRADE JUSTICE NOT FREE TRADE

Michael is a cocoa farmer in Ghana. He is one of the thousands of small scale African farmers who struggle to make a living under unjust trade rules. He is a victim of free trade and forced liberalisation.

Economic liberalisation is where a country’s economy is run with minimal government intervention. It is an approach that rich country governments and international institutions are forcing poor countries to accept.

Small scale farmers such as Michael are abandoned to predatory merchants and agents who show only contempt for rural life and "uneducated" rural people. This instability threatens product quality, farmers' earnings and "confidence" and thus the sustainability of rural livelihoods and cocoa production.

If we are serious about having a world free from poverty, then poor countries must be given the chance to work their own way out of it. Poor countries should have the right to use their economy to help their poorest industries, workers and farmers. This means allowing governments of developing countries the right to determine appropriate policies for overcoming poverty. Developing countries must be allowed to negotiate on equal terms at the World Trade Organisation and not have their hands tied by the World Bank, IMF or the European Union.

We want Trade Justice, not free trade.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Tell Tony Blair to turn words into action.

On 11 March, Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa published its long-awaited report, containing recommendations for Africa’s future - one of which is that African countries should not be forced to open up their economies. This marks a major breakthrough in our campaign for Trade Justice. But words are not enough. We need to convince the government to stop pushing free trade on poor countries.

The UK government is still pursuing policies which force poor countries to liberalise:

• The EU is currently pushing its former colonies to open up their markets as part of the negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements.

• The IMF and World Bank - with UK support - also continue to use their influence to liberalise poor countries economies.

Send a letter or action card now. Tell Blair to turn his words into action and seize this unique chance to deliver trade justice for the world’s poor and ensure that other G8 countries do the same.

Alternatively send an action card to your local MEP or to the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Economic Partnership Agreements. Demand that the EU :-

• withdraws ‘offensive’ market access demands from the EPA negotiations:

• drops its demand for reciprocal trade liberalisation

• urgently honours its commitment to provide countries with viable non-reciprocal alternatives to EPAs, in parallel to EPA negotiations in 2005.

Further information:

Trade Justice Movement: www.tjm.org.uk

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