Call for a New Trade Policy
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Call for a New Trade Policy
No country has ever become developed by following a free-trade model from the outset. Yet the world’s richest countries continue to force the poorest countries to open their markets to global competition. Join ActionAid in the fight for trade policies that support sustainable development.
No country has ever become developed by following a free-trade model from the outset. Yet the world’s richest countries continue to force the poorest countries to open their markets to global competition. This policy has had disastrous impacts in Mexico, where over a million farmers have been displaced because of cheap imports of US corn under North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA.
Developing countries have joined together in the global World Trade Organization, WTO negotiations to insist on their right to protect key commodities, what are called “special products” within WTO, from trade liberalization to promote food security, livelihoods and rural development. New proposals are on the table to revive the moribund WTO talks, which are currently stalled in large part because of conflicts over agriculture. At the same time, Congress is considering the approval of bilateral accords, such as the proposed US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, that continue to require developing countries open their economies to unregulated trade and investment, no matter what the cost.
ActionAid has shown how US trade policies, especially the policies being pushed at the WTO, are undermining the achievement of the right to food in developing countries. Using the experiences and knowledge of our country programs and partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, ActionAid is pushing for alternative policies that support developing countries’ right to carry out the agricultural development policies that make most sense in their national contexts.
Join ActionAid in demanding a new trade policythat starts from the premise that trade must support sustainable development in rich and poor countries.
