 |
Just Trade Agreements? |
Rev. Dr. M. Douglas Meeks,
Chancellor Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies at
Vanderbilt University, presents paper on 'The Economy of
Grace'
Photo: Victoria Richardson |
|---|
Consultation Summary
Churches in North America have a strategic opportunity to work together for a more humane, just, and environmentally sustainable world. We must not miss this opportunity!
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the worldwide church has seriously engaged in the ethical and theological challenges posed by the negative consequences of globalization and related social and economic issues. Churches in the North American are working together for economies that put people and the environment first. One hundred church leaders from the U.S., Canada and Mexico joined many international delegates recently to write a Declaration and launch an Action Plan promoting just trade in the Americas.
Church World Service (CWS) and the Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) convened a January 11-14, 2004 consultation, "Just Trade Agreements? Churches in North America Discuss Globalization," held in Stony Point, New York. The consultation drew heads of communions and attendees from Mexico, Canada and the United States as well as from the other regions of the world.
The Consultation discussed key questions raised by the negative consequences of globalization. W hat is "globalization"? It is a complex process of integration of economies and societies around the world that affects many aspects of our lives. Integration of economies around the world, through technology and telecommunications has generated the promise of efficient exchange of information and capital, growing interdependence of peoples and nations, and an emerging world culture. Yet this is not the complete story. Anxieties about rising inequality, shifting power and cultural uniformity have been now overtaken by the disastrous impact on the environment and the poor everywhere.
Why does international trade matter? Today, international trade is worth $10 million a minute. Of this, poor countries account for only 0.4 per cent of world trade, and since 1980 their share has halved. At the same time, income per person in the poorest countries in Africa has fallen by a quarter in the last 20 years, and nearly half the world's population (2.8 billion people) now live on less than $2 per day. The United Nations estimates that unfair trade rules deny poor countries $700 billion every year. Globally, the prices of many poor countries' key exports are at a 150-year low, with devastating impacts on the communities who rely on income from these commodities for survival. 1
Consultation delegates
worship together.
Photo: Victoria Richardson |
|---|
Personal testimonials from those who have been on the underside of globalization underscored the negative impact of "globalization" in our real lives. Representing the Independent Farmworker Center in New York State, Aspacio Alcantara said ninety percent of the agricultural workers in that state are economic refugees from Mexico and only earn between $5,000-$8,000 a year.
We learned how Mexican "people of the corn," cultivators for thousands of years of diverse varieties of seed, now denounce the transgenic contamination of these seeds, that has put their own food security at risk.
Chief Arthur Manuel of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade/British Columbia Interior Alliance, explained how Indigenous peoples in Canada have used international trade tribunals to assert Indigenous proprietary rights as a an element to be addressed in international trade law.
Keynote speaker M. Douglas Meeks, Chancellor Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies at Vanderbilt University, argued that we work for just trade because of the justice of God. God's justice creates and sustains the conditions for life. Professor Meeks encouraged the churches to speak out prophetically and concretely on matters of trade justice.
One of the central foci of discussion was the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement (FTAA), a regional trade agreement that seeks to progressively eliminate barriers to trade and investment in North and South America. The Heads of State of the 34 democracies in the region began the effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area at the Summit of the Americas, held in Miami, Florida in December 1994. Many consultation attendees were concerned that if the negative consequences of NAFTA are any indicator, FTAA needs to be carefully analyzed by the churches.
At the tenth anniversary of NAFTA, consultation presenters said recent studies show there is more hardship for the poor in Mexico than before NAFTA. Of 100 million Mexicans, 70 million are living in poverty. 40 million go hungry, resulting in malnutrition, illnesses, lack of education, and chemical dependencies often among children.
Mexican and Canadian participants expressed a common concern about their economies increased dependency on the U.S. economy, as well as the impact of U.S. militarism on economic and immigration issues.
Mexico has experienced extreme privatization in its Social Security and other social services such as education, health and highways. Mexican delegates shared that they had experienced the down side of U.S. corporations "shopping the world" for ever lower-cost workers, and in the process many Canadian, American and Mexican workers continue losing their jobs. While there was some substantive job creation in the eighties and early nineties, recently the Mexican labor market has been losing many jobs to Asian countries.
Canadians expressed concern about the importance of ensuring that trade agreements protect their socialized health care system.
Participants reflected that given a U.S. tendency to isolationism and unilateralism, it is important for the churches in the U.S. to be in continual dialogue with neighboring churches in Mexico and Canada. Even amidst these deep and complex issues there was a consensus that the churches in our region can move ahead together.
The planning leading up to North American Churches' Consultation on Globalization began over two years ago. In October 2003 twenty delegates from all three countries met in Niagara Falls, New York to plan the program for the final consultation. The planning process was accompanied by the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Lutheran World Federation.
The consultation was a unique moment of global and regional importance. Globally it was the culminating event in a series of six regional consultations in different regions of the world launched internationally in 1999 and viewed as a vital expression of a global ecumenical process addressing economic globalization. Regionally, the consultation was historic because it was one of the first time in recent ecumenical history that the churches from Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. met together in recognition of the strategic opportunity of working together for a more humane, just and environmentally sustainable world. The Consultation has been seen as the beginning of the collaboration among churches in North America for education and advocacy on just trade.
The discussions and plans for collaborative engagement on the issue of just trade and globalization are set out in the two key outcome documents from the Consultation: What does God Require of Us? A Declaration for Just Trade in the Service of an Economy of Life and A Plan for Action.Consultation convenors now hope that the Declaration "What Does God Require of Us?" will be brought to denominations and religious organizations for endorsement. Names will be added to the Declaration as they are received, with the hope for as many endorsements as possible by the summer months of July and August. A tri-national planning group also will be working to develop ways to implement the action plan that was developed at the consultation.
- Source: "Trade Justice Campaign - The Basics: Top-Ten Facts," Christian Aid, UK http://www.christian-aid.org.uk/campaign/trade/basics.htm#topten
Read more on consultation
Back to top