PRESS RELEASE

24 June 2003

Richard Ottaway listens to constituents for world poverty campaign

Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South has meting a group of Croydon South constituents to support their campaign for international trade rules to be reformed to give poor countries a fair deal.

Richard Ottaway said:

"Trade is now the most important factor in the fight against poverty in the developing world, but the way today's international trade rules are implemented is often unfair on poor countries. Western agricultural subsidies, which no longer even help our farmers, are also hugely damaging the livelihoods of people in poor countries, making them unable to compete on a level playing field."

"It is essential that the Government acts to radically reform the Common Agricultural Policy. The Government is failing on the commitments they have made to reform trade rules and are therefore failing the poor in the developing world. I strongly support the Trade Justice Campaign to bring the injustice of the present global trading system to greater public attention and to urge the Government to sit up and listen."

Notes to Editors
1. For more information, please call 020 7219 6392.

2. Richard Ottaway has signed the following Early Day Motion in Parliament (EDM 1421):
That this House shares the concern of the Trade Justice Movement about the plight of the poorest people in the world, and congratulates them on bringing them to the attention of the public; notes with concern the fact that a billion live on less than a dollar a day, that life expectancy in many African countries is declining, and that 30 million people in Africa have HIV/AIDS; believes that rising levels of international trade and trade liberalisation offer the best hope of alleviating poverty in the developing world; calls for quality legal and economic advice for developing countries on trade issues; believes that the Government has failed to do enough to promote trade liberalisation, reform agricultural subsidies and phase out European trade barriers; and further calls on the Government to use the World Trade Organisation meeting at Cancun to do more to reform the international trade rules to give poor countries a fair deal on international trade.

3. The Trade Justice Lobby is a group of more than 60 UK organisations, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and CAFOD, who are campaigning for a reform of international trade rules.