"Trade justice" means the poor go without

By Alex Singleton | 11 April 2005

It's bizarre that Christian Aid, the World Development Movement, War on Want et al support unfree and unfair trade. By encouraging poor countries to keep their tariffs, the poorest in the world are forced to go without. Take Sierra Leone. Thanks to so-called "trade justice", there is no international competition in cement - pretty essential for having a home to live in. People from Sierra Leone are therefore forced to buy from a local producer. The result? Cement is artificially expensive - because the producer can charge whatever he likes - and it is unaffordable to the poor. To mimic Christian Aid, it's not called slavery any longer: it's called "trade justice".