Trade Justice

Trade Justice is about making trade - the buying and selling of goods and services - fair.

Early Day Motions

Early Day Motions (EDMs) are motions submitted by members of Parliament. They can be signed by other members of Parliament, and function like a petition. They can raise awareness of a topic, but are unlikely to be debated in Parliament. More information can be found on EDMs from a PDF factsheet.

Some Early Day Motions from 2004-05 related to trade justice are listed here...

• Trade Justice and Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa - EDM No.333);
• Make Poverty History in 2005 Campaign (EDM no. 9);
• G8 and EU Presidencies (EDM no. 33);
• Trade Justice Movement (EDM no. 37);
• EU Sugar Regime (EDM no. 72).

John Battle MP’s Parliament call for trade justice

John Battle, MP for Leeds North West, came to speak to our group at the end of the Autumn term, 2004. See below for a press release from him, 8/12/04. The International Development Select Committee’s evidence on this subject is available here.

“Today I tabled a Parliamentary motion, Early Day Motion 333, calling for the Government to make EU trade negotiations take the needs of the world’s poorest people more seriously,” he said. “There’s no sense in increasing our aid with one hand if we stop poor countries making a living with the other.

“EU trade negotiations with Africa could mean African countries opening up to free trade without Europe dropping our subsidies and trade barriers, and that could seriously hurt poor farmers. I serve on the International Development Select Committee of MPs - we have reported in great detail on the impact of trade agreements like this which can destroy the livelihoods of those who are already among the poorest. Earlier this year we welcomed the Government’s commitment not to persuade poor countries to make unhelpful trade deals on a global level at the World Trade Organisation. But instead there is a danger that the EU may try to pick off African nations one by one and negotiate trade deals that will damage the poor. The Government must prevent our EU colleagues from going down this road.

“I get more letters from my constituents about aid, fair trade, international debt and related issues than on almost anything else, as do many other MPs – and I’ve noticed a great increase in people’s concerns about these things in the last five to ten years.

“The Chancellor has promised to reach the United Nations aid target of giving 0.7% of national income in aid, with major increases in the aid budget planned for the next three years, as well as having led the way internationally on tackling unpayable international debt. Changes in trade rules to ensure trade justice are also crucial if we are to halve world poverty by 2015, as we and most of the world’s governments have promised to do.”

End

http://www.johnbattle-mp.org.uk/pr122.html