Moray Friends of the Earth

 Campaigning for Environmental Justice

 By Jenny Adams

At various times this year you will be offered the chance to “Vote for Trade Justice”.  Friends of the Earth Scotland is part of the Trade Justice Movement, which is pushing for changes to world trade rules, and here is an attempt to explain why.

Ghanaian Kofi Eliassa was a tomato farmer. His tomatoes, produced on his one-acre plot, used to bring in enough money for him to feed his family and send his children to school. But a flood of imported Italian tomatoes put an end to that, as they undercut local produce, lowering the price so that Kofi can no longer make a living from his farm. He now works breaking stones in a quarry, starting work at 6am and getting paid £1 a day. Those Italian tomatoes have been subsidised by us, as members of the EU, while the Ghanaian government has been forced to cut support for its farmers by international financial institutions.

And there are very many similar stories of real people in the poorest countries of the world for whom trade is not working. Trade should allow people to work their way out of poverty, but it is not doing that just now.

There are also many examples of large Transnational Corporations (TNCs) doing business around the world who are taking advantage of their enormous economic power to force down labour and environmental standards in host countries. In 1999, 51 of the 100 largest economies were TNCs, which shows the pressure they can exert both on nations and on the organisations making and enforcing trade rules.

International trade needs rules. Everyone agrees that, but there is disagreement on what those rules should aim to achieve. At present, trade rules are predominantly made by rich countries, using their widespread influence, and are made to suit rich countries’ economies and companies.

There is also widespread hypocrisy in richer nations about how “free” trade should be. Under pressure from international financial institutions and aid donors, poor countries are being forced to remove subsidies from local producers and remove barriers to imports, thus opening their markets to imports from the richest nations. However, the EU and US, amongst others, maintain large tariffs and barriers on imports and maintain huge subsidies on local production, particularly in agriculture. This combination can be disastrous, as Kofi’s story proves.

Many politicians now agree with this, but argue that proper free trade is the solution - removing all protection and subsidies from all countries, allowing a “level playing field”. But that isn’t enough - a level playing field between highly technical agri-business in the north and a poor farmer in the south is like playing Rangers against a local primary school - the playing field may be level, but it’s still not fair.

What is required is trade justice, not free trade. Trade rules should be biased in favour of the poor, with poverty reduction and environmental protection as the aim. Poor countries should be allowed to protect and help their vulnerable people, and should have the right to sell their goods in rich countries. They also require international legally binding regulation of TNCs, to ensure human rights and environmental standards are maintained worldwide.

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Website updated 05 February 2009