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KAIROS-- Trade
Contents
KAIROS believes that trade agendas and economic policies must serve the good of all peoples and the Earth. Canada’s approach to trading relations continues to rely on global rules that facilitate liberalization and promote increased economic growth as means for poverty eradication. Sadly, this approach has dramatically increased the concentration of the world’s wealth in the last two decades, and the number of poor has actually grown. Trade can be an important means of fulfilling countries’ human rights obligations. Instead, Canada’s approach to trade has led to the erosion of human rights and national sovereignty. We believe that powerful decision makers such as national governments, international trade organizations like the WTO, international financial institutions, and corporations must be held accountable for the impact of their policies. Economic policies must be placed at the service of human beings if people in Canada and the Global South are to rise out of poverty. Canada’s economic relations – of which trade and investment are key mechanisms – must be placed at the service of people and their communities. For decades KAIROS and its predecessor coalitions have struggled against unjust trade agreements and offered alternatives. The struggle initially focused on the Canada-US Free trade agreement implemented in 1989, then shifted to the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), adding Mexico in 1994, the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), regional and bilateral free trade agreements, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
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