Church newspapers on free trade and Christianity

By Alex Singleton | 7 May 2005

The Church Times - an independent Anglican newspaper - quotes me in its latest issue, talking about how the Church of England should cover the issue of free trade.

Meanwhile, Claire Melamed of Christian Aid has a particularly arrogant article in the Church of England Newspaper. She sneers at a vicar who dared to point out that many prominent economists disagree with Christian Aid, and perhaps therefore the Church needs to consult more widely than just with Christian Aid. She feels necessary to blind readers with the term "Computable General Equilibrium Models", as if to prove how clever she is. She would do better adopting a much simpler economists' tool: to look at both what is seen and what is not seen.

In trade policy, Christian Aid sees that some are put out of business when trade is liberalised. A good economist, however, looks at the effects in an economy as a whole. In 19th Century Britain, the farmers complained that free trade would put them out of business. The poor hated protectionism because it forced them to pay more for food. Protectionists, much like Christian Aid today, campaigned in favour of the Corn Laws. Yet when the Corn Laws were removed, it was a great victory in the fight against poverty. The poor had a saying: "If I be protected, I be starving."

Christian Aid acts as though it is the final authority on all matters economic. The fact that free trade is supported by almost all of the world's prominent trade economists, along with the British government, points to a different conclusion. The Financial Times has descibed Christian Aid as a "malign influence" and said that its trade campaign is "strikingly irresponsible". Christian Aid is losing all credibility.