Week of Action urges trade policies that uphold the right to food

October 15, 2007

The cover of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's guide to the October 14-21 Trade Week of Action.

Photo: EAA

Millions of small-holder farmers in the global South lose their farms and livelihoods as “free trade” floods their countries with subsidized grains produced by highly mechanized agriculture in rich countries like the United States.

Without work, they cannot afford to buy the imported food. And rather than costing less, basic food staples like tortillas in Mexico have actually risen in price.

Trade policies responsible for undermining the right to food are the target of this year’s October 14-21 Week of Action on Trade. The week straddles World Food Day, on October 16.

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) and its member organizations are calling congregations throughout the world to join in efforts aimed at just international trade policies and relationships during the week. The Education and Advocacy Program of Church World Service is a founding member of EAA.

Last year, Church World Service launched its year-long Sow Justice campaign, aimed at reform of a farm bill that subsidizes grain exports by large U.S. corporations and undermines food production and sufficiency worldwide.

Through its education and advocacy program CWS helped a World Council of Churches team from Geneva take part in meetings in the U.S. earlier this year to prepare for the 2008 international conference on Financing for Development, a process under-girding the Millennium Development Goals. The Council has closely followed the process since 2000, criticizing the neo-liberal policies of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that are expressed in the Monterrey Consensus.

Through its E&A program, CWS also supported the participation of former chair of a nongovernmental committee on Financing for Development Philo Morris in a May civil society forum in Paramaribo, Suriname. Speaking on the Millennium Development Goal of a global partnership for development, Morris stressed the link between trade policies and poverty and hunger.

EAA published a guide for prayer and liturgy, fasts and agape meals, and dramas and exhibitions for the October week of action, as well as tips for lobbying and media outreach. The resource also outlines the problem, some solutions, and points out who needs to do what.

During the Trade Week of Action, Church World Service is asking church members to contact their members of Congress and call for a change in U.S. trade policy.

The Interfaith Working Group on Trade, co-chaired by E&A associate director Martin Shupack, calls for trade agreements that are formulated with full democratic accountability and citizen participation both in the United States and in U.S. trading partners. The Working Group, which works closely with Ecumenical Advocacy Days, says trade agreements should improve the lives, food security, health and livelihoods of workers and farmers in the U.S. and developing countries.

Trade agreements must respect the right of developing countries to safeguard their own domestic economies through trade policies, regulations and mechanisms which promote and protect their own small-holder farmers, vulnerable workers, and homegrown manufacturers.

The group adds that trade agreements must not demand that essential public services be privatized, nor impose intellectual property rights restrictions that hinder access to affordable essential medicines in developing countries.