International trade: Where fair Beats Free
The Scottish Green Party believes that UK and EU trade policy should be governed by three key ethical principles: to benefit the poorest countries and the poorest people within them; to contribute to human rights; and to contribute to greater environmental sustainability. As such, we fully support the growing trade justice movement.
Trade can overcome local, regional and national scarcity, and can generate new livelihoods and employment. However, it can also damage the environment and destroy vulnerable local industries.
Green MPs will take account of both positive and negative outcomes of trade and will ensure that all countries have equal access to trade negotiations. The UK is in a strong position within institutions such as the WTO, the G8, and the EU to demand reform of international trading regulations.
Trade agreements need to focus on achieving sustainable development, of which poverty eradication is an integral part. Legislation is also required to ensure that sustainability is not sacrificed for international “competitiveness”.
Green MPs will work to:
- bring forward legislation to establish an Ethical Trading Accreditation Scheme, which will set standards of environmental sustainability and social welfare;
- implement an Ethical Trading Tax, which penalises those producing goods and services which fall below the standards of the scheme, giving a competitive advantage to ethically-run businesses;
- introduce a currency transaction tax, akin to the Tobin Tax, in order to provide further funding to achieve the Millennium Development Goals;
- sign up to the international arms trade treaty to help control the flow of weapons;
- ensure that all countries have equal access to trade negotiations;
- reform the WTO, as part of a strengthened UN, with a remit to enforce core social and environmental standards in our trade system, rather than its current role of enforcing the rights of multinational companies.