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NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2007 Website: www.wtj.org.uk Annual
General Meeting –
4 NOVEMBER 2007 2.30pm
at St Stephen’s Church Hall, Prenton Lane, CH42 8LA SPEAKER:
ANGUS CLEARY, OXFAM WILL
CLIMATE CHANGE MAKE TRADE JUSTICE IMPOSSIBLE? The Mayor of Wirral, Cr Phil Gilchrist, has said he will be present - if he can - to show his support for Wirral Trade Justice. Confirmation will be posted on the website. As usual the AGM will be very brief, (unless somebody raises something that we haven’t thought of,) consisting of approval of accounts and election of officers. We need a new secretary because David Bird has recently become a governor of the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Please, please contact a member of the committee if you think you could spare a couple of hours a month for this urgent need. All the relevant AGM papers (that is agenda, officers’ reports and financial statement) are enclosed and can be read on the website. The AGM will be followed by an address by Angus Cleary of Oxfam who will raise questions about how global warming is likely to make the need for trade justice even more urgent. Please support this important event in the WTJ calendar. When we write to MPs or speak to the media and such like, they are always impressed when we can tell them how many members we have and how well-attended our meetings are! If you can, would you display the notice at the end of this newsletter so as to give us a bit of extra publicity? Economic
Partnership Agreements This is still the main issue on the political horizon at the moment. The UK government is continuing to make the running in trying to ensure that the European Union and the USA do not use their economic muscle to bully poorer countries into unfair deals. We have to keep the pressure up in any way we can. What we do as campaigners may not change the world but I’m sure it has an important effect at the margins. Four members of your committee joined in with a couple of thousand others to apply a bit of pressure to EU governments on 19 April in London. The Trade Justice Movement had had the idea to confront all the embassies of the 27 EU countries after a rally in Belgrave Square. THE
TRADE JUSTICE MOVEMENT’S REQUEST That Germany and all
the other EU countries should use their full influence to stop unfair
deals being imposed, to listen to the serious concerns of poor countries
and to work with those countries to develop new deals that will help
deliver Trade Justice. We even got the chance to bend the ears of the Hungarian Economic and Cultural attachés. Check the website for some pictures. G4 The World Trade Organisation tried to revive the failed Doha Round of negotiations by sponsoring talks between the EU and the USA, in the rich corner, and India and Brazil loosely representing the poorer countries of the world. The talks were held in Potsdam in June 2007 and – predictably – collapsed. John Hilary, Campaigns and Policy Director of War on Want, said after the collapse: “The hypocrisy of the EU and US in demanding market access in other countries yet still striving to protect their own producers has been staggering. A collapse is the best possible outcome in the circumstances, but the world’s poorest countries deserved better.” New
Faces Gordon Brown has appointed Douglas Alexander as his
new Secretary of State for International Development. Mr Alexander’s department, DfID, has been given increased
responsibility for trade. ‘The cancellation of debt for Africa is
important. The doubling of
aid to Africa is important. But
trade talks dwarf all that. We
can increase the African economies by 7 times as much as all the aid,
just by reaching agreement (in trade negotiations)’. If you prefer to send an email, then there are good templates on the Trade Justice Movement website (which is linked to our own) and you can use the suggestions of CAFOD or Christian Aid or any of the other NGO sites which are well worth a read anyway. But don’t let this letter we have sent you go to waste! Just put your address on, date it, sign it,stamp it and send it! Real
Trade As part of their policy review the Conservative Party have produced a series of reports for debate within the party. In the report of the Globalisation and Global Poverty Group Peter Lilley has said: ‘Real Trade would require rich countries to do
5 things: open their markets unilaterally to the products of low income
countries; liberalise the ‘rules of origin’ that result in 40% of
imports (that should enter Europe tariff-free) paying duties; give
incentives to reduce the high tariff barriers between developing
countries; abolish export subsidies that damage Third World agriculture;
and give more Aid for Trade to help poor countries develop exports.’ If you’re a member of the Conservative Party you may be able to find a way of pressing for this kind of statement to become one of David Cameron’s manifesto commitments. Or perhaps we could all write to Conservative Central Office telling them that we agree wholeheartedly with what Peter Lilly has said. Chester
World Development Forum Wirral Trade Justice took part in an exhibition organised in Chester by the CWDF. We had a table with our leaflets and banner prominently displayed. A brief PowerPoint presentation set out our recent activities and achievements. This is still available on the website. We were able to talk to lots of people about WTJ and gave out some membership application forms. No new members but a few significant donations! See the website for a picture of the event. Spreading
the word Alan Vernon, with the support of a couple of helpers, took the Christian Aid trade justice game into St Anselm’s in July and unravelled some of the complexities of the WTO’s rules in sessions with Year 9 and Year 11 Groups. Alan can offer this for schools in Wirral and the game can be structured for use with any age of junior or secondary classes. If your school is interested, contact Alan on 342 3398. Quiz
and music Night The committee was encouraged by the overwhelming support given to our first social event. The Quiz and Music night in April was a sell-out and could have been sold out twice over. Over 100 tickets were sold, giving a healthy profit for our funds on the night, and the fun of Graham Loach’s quiz was followed by some magnificent singing by Nick Hardy, accompanied by Alan Derrick on the piano. We’ll be organising another event soon. Watch this space! Recruitment
– will you try to help? We have set ourselves the ambitious target of increasing our membership to 500 by the end of the year. It stands now at 271 so we have long way to go, but we still think it’s a manageable target – if everyone pulls together. Enclosed with this newsletter is a copy of the recent reprint of our brochure. This isn’t sent for your information – we know that there’s nothing in it that you don’t know already. It’s sent so that you can pass it on to someone who you think might have the same concerns as you have and may want to do some small thing to help the campaign for trade justice. It includes an application form and every member is asked to try to sign up at least one new member. Additional copies – for those who can sign up their whole family! – are available from Jack Heery on 648 1930 or can be downloaded from the website. We think that WTJ punches above its weight locally and this is partly because we can claim to have nearly 300 paid-up members. Please help us to keep the momentum going. Jack Heery 4 October 2007
Annual
General Meeting at 2.30pm on Sunday 4
November 2007 THIS
MEETING IS OPEN TO INTERESTED MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC St
Stephen’s Church Hall, Prenton Lane, CH42 8LA to
be followed by a talk and questions and answers SPEAKER:
ANGUS CLEARY, OXFAM WILL
CLIMATE CHANGE MAKE TRADE JUSTICE IMPOSSIBLE? Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP Dear
Mr Alexander Congratulations
on your appointment as Secretary of State for International Development.
As you know, the Prime Minister has stated that the UK's international
trade policy must move to address world poverty. I
welcome previous UK Government statements that EPAs must deliver
development and poverty reduction, as well as the part that you played
in forming that policy in 2005 as Minister for Trade and Investment.
Please call on your EU colleagues in trade and development to promote
trade justice. §
Use its full influence to stop the EU
from pressuring ACP countries to sign unfair trade deals. §
Ensure that ACP countries are not
forced to open their markets to unfair European competition that would
hurt their economies and their environment. §
Push for all demands to negotiate on
issues that are not subject to a WTO deadline to be dropped. §
Ensure that EU member states comply
with their legal obligation and immediately make a commitment that
higher tariffs will not be imposed on ACP countries and trade will not
be disrupted if an agreement is not in place at the end of the year. Please use your influence to ensure trade justice for ACP countries. Yours sincerely Printed and published by Jack Heery, 10 Marlfield Lane, Wirral, CH61 1AJ. |
