Whittingdale: calling for trade liberalisation

Campaigners have descended on Westminster to lobby MPs for greater justice in world trade.

More than 10,000 people gathered around parliament on Wednesday calling for an end to trading restrictions that are hitting some of the world's poorest countries.

The demonstration got a sympathetic hearing from all three of the main political parties and from the prime minister who gave the lobby his backing when he met with a series of representatives of the trade justice movement.

Campaigners believe the developed world must scrap protectionist measures, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, if the world's poorest nations are to benefit from globalisation.

They say that developing countries' incomes could increase by $150 billion US dollars a year if protectionist measures were scrapped.

The organisers are calling for MPs to support a new approach to food and farming to protect poor farmers' livelihoods and the environment.

They are also demanding a rethink on plans to liberalise vital services, such as water, in the developing word and new global laws to regulate the activities of trans-national corporations.

The issue was raised in the Commons at PMQs by Labour backbencher Clare Ward who called on government to work to change WTO rules.

"I think that the pro-justice movement will get a lot of support," the prime minister told the Commons before highlighting the efforts Labour had made since coming to power.

"We have been leading the cause of writing off the debt of the poorest countries," he said.

Following PMQs many MPs joined people from their constituencies outside parliament to express their support for the issue.

"International trade rules are skewered in favour of wealthy countries and I'll be pushing the government to demand a review of them.," Labour backbencher John Cryer told ePolitix.com.

"It's quite clear that the government has got the message but there's been too much tea and sympathy and not enough action," said Liberal Democrat Paul Marsen.

Earlier Labour MP Tom Clarke took up the issue in a Westminster Hall debate and the opposition will raise the subject in a Commons debate this afternoon.

Clarke told MPs that the subject was dominating the parliamentary agenda today.

"This is not an anti-trade debate, but one that asserts that the benefits should go to the many and not the few," he said.

"Trade has a huge potential for good or ill. Developing countries are not asking for a hand-out, they want and deserve justice and I agree entirely with that view."

The Conservative Party also made the case for trade liberalisation during an opposition day debate this afternoon.

Shadow trade secretary John Whittingdale said that liberalisation, managed sensibly by the 142 members of the world trade organisation, offered "the best hope of prosperity in the developing world".

"International trade has been the great driver of prosperity for the past half century. International investment is the force pushing globalisation forward, bringing prosperity to many countries in an astonishingly short time," he said.

"Trade restrictions represent the main barrier to development. By seeking to impose controls on overseas investment in developing countries, there is a danger that this may make it less attractive for companies to invest, thus depriving people in the developing world of the jobs and trading opportunities that they desperately need.

Writing for this website, the international trade minister, Baroness Symons, said: "With renewed trade disputes over steel and agriculture grabbing headlines around the world, it is easy to see why they and the developing world are concerned about our commitment to helping poorer nations.

"The trade justice movement and other NGOs play an important role in pushing for this change. They were an essential part of the UK delegation at Doha and helped secure a positive final agreement.

"We have proved that government and campaign groups can work together effectively."