World trade must work for everyone not just the rich, says DR RUDI VIS, MP for Finchley and Golders Green

Last Wednesday was Trade Justice day.

The House of Commons was besieged by 10,000 people who were there for a fairer world, for fair trade, for a reduction in world poverty.

It was fabulous all those people coming out for other people in the world who live in abject poverty.

The Trade Justice Movement (TJM) is a coalition of 38 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), including such famous names as the Catholic Aid Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid and Oxfam.

The mass rally was entirely peaceful. The Finchley and Golders Green delegation was large and totally well-informed. They and I spent a very pleasant time together discussing the main issues.

I am entirely behind the central concern of the TJM, which is that sustainable development and the reduction of poverty in the economically-developing world should be the main objective in the development of international trade rules.

And as Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General put it: "As we enter a new millennium, we must make trade work for the poor."

The current round of negotiations was initially agreed at last year's World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Doha, the capital of Qatar, situated on the Persian Gulf.

The Government agrees with these major aims. It also believes that increased world trade can be a powerful development tool.

But who is it that sets the agenda of the WTO?

It is argued that despite poor countries forming the majority of the nations around the negotiating table, it is the USA and the European Union, or better still the multinationals from those countries who have a decisive influence on world trade issues.

To put this differently, profit rules and poverty remains.

The Trade Justice movement is a serious and powerful coalition and the mass rally will not be the last rally. I will support them as best I can.

June 24, 2002 17:30