The Globalisation Institute gets covered in the current issue of the Church of England Newspaper:

The 'one-sided' approach of the Church to trade justice was attacked this week by a new think tank.

A report timed to coincide with next week's 'Global Week of Action for Trade Justice', claims that the Church has been captured by supporters of 'trade justice' when above all else, what is needed is truly free trade.

The Globalisation Institute claims that a large proportion of support for 'trade justice' comes from the churches, yet churches "are not the ideal venue for discussions of economics."

The Institute argues that 'dissent' is difficult in Church and so "supporters of free trade never voice an alternative perspective".

"Thus Britain's churches have become places where Sunday after Sunday the Trade Justice Movement's view of 'Christian economics' is expounded, as though any other view is anti-Christian."

The report 'Free Trade or Trade Justice?' by Alex Singleton of the Institute, points out that the oft-repeated claim that 'poverty and inequality have reached unprecedented levels' is false. The report claims that free trade, for example, in east Asia has liberated millions from poverty.

"Because so few people understand the role of free trade in increasing living standards, the ability of campaigners to label it 'unfair' and 'unjust' is great. Campaign groups and churches are promoting a mistaken view of 'trade justice' as though it had been engraved onto stone tablets and sent down from on high The report says that economists overwhelmingly support 'free trade', as do governments and British political parties.

"The truth is that free trade is only 'discredited' among ideological campaigners and those who listen to them. Out in the global economy, free trade is the only trade policy that works."