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Essential links on trade

  • Trade justice Movement News: The Trade Justice Movement is a fast growing group of organisations including trade unions, aid agencies, environment and human rights campaigns, fairtrade organisations, faith and consumer groups, campaigning for trade justice - not free trade - with the rules weighted to benefit poor people and the environment.

  • Co-operating Out Of Poverty: This website provides information about Co-operating Out Of Poverty and the contribution of co-operatives to poverty reduction. It reports on activities around the world, and promote the co-operative option through the dissemination of information on successful co-operative poverty reduction initiatives.

  • Pieces in the Puzzle - Seeking justice on both trade and debt, September 2002. The paper demonstrates that decisions taken by the IMF and World Bank on poor countries' debt repayments are based on the ability of countries to pay, generally through the proceeds of commodity based trade, rather than on the resources these countries need to tackle poverty. It also shows that both debt relief and improved trade would benefit poor countries, but that countries are locked into a 'Catch 22' situation, whereby poor trade conditions affect their ability to repay debts, and heavy debt burdens prevent them making investments that would increase their earnings from trade.
  • The EU-ACP trade negotiations - why EPAs need a rethink, October 2004. The European Commission in negotiating what are called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), free trade agreements by any other name, with 77 of its former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region. Christian Aid is campaigning to stop current EPA 363 negotiations, which could lead to widespread job losses and damage the livelihoods of poor people. 
  • Talking trade, November 2003. Using innovative and participatory research techniques, Ghanaian farmers, traders and consumers were asked about how trade policy affects them, and how it might be improved. 

  • Six reasons to oppose Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in their current form. The paper sets out arguments for fundamental change to EPAs and is a contribution to the further discussion that is necessary for development-centred alternatives to the EPAs as currently envisaged. 
  • EPAs: The Wrong Ointment. Why the EU's proposals for free trade with Africa will not heal its scar of poverty. The paper argues that the UK Government’s positive focus on Africa in 2005 is seriously undermined by the inequitable bilateral free trade agreements currently being negotiated between the Europe Union and African countries. 
  • Analysis of the WTO Framework Agreement. Overcoming widespread fears of a collapse, the framework deal agreed on 1 August 2004 puts the WTO and the Doha Round on a healthier footing. Negotiations are now in a position to progress in 2005; nonetheless the framework agreement reached was of very limited ambition and postpones most of the discussion on major areas of contention. 
  • Can agricultural trade deliver for the poorest developing countries? Lots of bets are placed on agriculture as the key to poverty reduction - in particular for Africa. But what potential obstacles are there? And what does this mean for policy?
  • Four arguments against a Plurilateral Investment Agreement in the WTO. November 2003 briefing by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Action Aid, Oxfam and the World Development Movement. The paper sets out arguments against the European Commission proposal for a plurilateral approach to the issues of investment and competition policy within the WTO 
  • Dumping on the poor. The paper argues that the European Union’s Common Agriculture Policy (C.A.P), and the subsidies and protectionism employed by the other major economic powers, constitute a roadblock on the path to development for dozens of the world’s poorest nations. 
  • Trade, debt and aid: Why the three Policy demands. A coordinated effort on all these issues is important because they are inextricably linked. The debt crisis, trade injustice and politically-driven aid policy interact with each other to exacerbate poverty, inequality and environmental degradation across the developing world. The three issues are also linked because they are vehicles through which rich countries are pursuing their own narrow self-interest rather than the interests of the poor. Whether through binding multilateral, regional or bilateral trade deals, or economic policy conditions attached to aid and debt relief, rich countries are pushing poor countries to adopt neo-liberal economic policies, which have proven to be ineffective in reducing poverty.