Make Poverty History Through Trade

John Battle says:

Reappointed to the International Development Select Committee, I am now leading the campaign in Parliament, following the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, to move on from aid and debt to the issue of fair trade.

In December the World Trade Organisation resume in Hong Kong and tackling European and American agricultural subsidies will be crucial to constructing a fair trade system that enables African countries to join in selling their agricultural goods and being allowed to process them.

Last week I addressed a Make Poverty History day in Chester Cathedral for young people and it is clear that the themes of linking the local to the global and tackling injustice and poverty worldwide and central to their political concerns.

I tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament on the first day back that is rapidly gaining support and is being used by the Make Poverty History coalition as a campaigning tool. Fair Trade structures is a key twenty first century challenge.

©John Battle MP 14 October 2005