Oxfam Launches Make Trade Fair Campaign

Posted: 13 May 2002

While trade is one of the most powerful forces linking people around the world, many of the rules of international trade work against poor people. Oxfam has launched a worldwide campaign, Make Trade Fair, to change the inequalities in world trade rules.

by Jennifer R. Wilder

Trade is one of the most powerful forces linking people’s lives around the world. It has generated enormous wealth and offers great potential for poverty reduction, but only if the wealth can be directed to that purpose.

But, many of the rules of international trade actually work against poor people. On April 11, Oxfam launched a worldwide campaign, Make Trade Fair, to unite thousands of voices of concerned citizens, bringing pressure to bear on governments, multinational corporations, powerful international organizations, and consumers to change the inequalities in world trade rules. The right changes could lift millions out of poverty. Some of the more unfair imbalances are reflected in the following facts:

Wealthy countries maintain high tariffs and trade barriers against products from developing nations, yet through World Bank and International Monetary Fund rules, the poorer nations are required to drop those kinds of protections of their markets. This means:

The poorest nations are prohibited from protecting farmers and food security needs, while wealthy countries spend $1 billion a day subsidizing agriculture, the vast majority of which goes to large corporations, not small farmers.

For every $1 given to poor countries in aid, they lose $2 to wealthy countries because of unfair trade barriers against their exports. Greater access to markets for poor nations must be combined with policies that distribute the benefits of trade to the poorest members of the population.

Oxfam’s message is clear – we are advocates for the poorest people. Change the rules of trade that deepen poverty. Develop rules that allow everyone – most especially the poor – to profit from trade and do not allow one group to take unfair advantage of another.

The issues are complex, but they all target problems that Oxfam and our partners identify in our daily work at the grassroots level. For example:

Many Mexican farmers can no longer afford to raise corn because rules of trade force them to compete with U.S. corporations that flood their markets with underpriced corn. Meanwhile, U.S. small farmers who raise corn cannot obtain a fair price either.

Thousands of HIV/AIDS victims in Africa are unable to afford lifesaving medicines, because trade rules protect corporate drug patents that keep generic products out of poor countries.

Coffee prices have fallen 70 percent since 1997, yet coffee drinkers are not paying less. Poor coffee growers from Kenya to Nicaragua are suffering terribly. Many have left their farms to look for work in cities, their children are out of school, and many families are hungry. Most of the profits are going to a handful of large international coffee companies.

People of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean Ocean can no longer make a living from bananas, because trade agreements with Europe force them to open their markets to foreign competition.

Around the world, intolerable labor conditions result from a trade model that values profits over people. In Columbia, women pick carnations for some of the world’s biggest flower producers. In California they pick strawberries; in Florida they pick tomatoes. All share the same demands that they resume picking soon after pesticide spraying. Everywhere these women endure resulting health problems, from skin irritations to nausea and miscarriages.

European countries have set a 10.9 percent tariff on shrimp imported from Vietnam, but the International Monetary Fund prohibits Vietnam from establishing any protections to their own domestic markets.

How can Oxfam change the world’s trade rules?

We are not alone in this effort. Many like-minded organizations are collaborating with us. We will jointly achieve our goals by activating millions of concerned people around the world, getting them to take action and be heard. We know our combined voices can force some very significant changes.

Why does Oxfam think it can make a difference?

We already have:

Last year, Oxfam and other NGOs managed to organize enough public outrage to stop powerful drug companies from enforcing strong patent rules. The companies had tried to sue the South African government when it decided to buy generic drugs for AIDS victims.

Oxfam America is credited as one of the foremost voices to convince the Congress and the Clinton and Bush Administrations that debt relief would be a wise and humane step toward reducing poverty in seriously indebted countries. We know already that this money is making big inroads toward improving health and education in several countries.

An Oxfam-funded report convinced government officials in Peru that they should review more closely the environmental and cultural impact of foreign-owned mines on indigenous communities.

The list goes on – and it will get a lot longer with the help of our supporters on the trade campaign.

We invite you to join us – go to www.maketradefair.com and sign up. You can even send an email to President Bush, urging him to support fair trade rules. Send your friends, relations, and colleagues to the site. Start educating yourself and others about the ways in which our government, powerful international institutions, and multinational corporations need to change their ways of working.

Add your voice and be counted.