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Church joins the Trade Justice Movement

7 September 2004

The Church of England today became the newest member of the Trade Justice Movement. The General Synod voted for membership at its July meeting in York, when it also called on the Church to support justice in world trade and to highlight opportunities to make a difference when the UK Government holds the EU presidency and chairs the G8 Summit in 2005. The TJM campaigns for trade justice, with the rules weighted to benefit people and the environment, rather than free trade.

The Rt Revd John Sentamu, Bishop of Birmingham, will speak at the Movement's Vote for Trade Justice event on the opening day of the Labour Party conference in Brighton on Sunday, September 26. The event aims to "demand the Government ends global poverty and protects our planet."

Dr Daleep Mukarji, Director of Christian Aid, said, "We are delighted the Church of England has joined the TJM - working with others for justice in International Trade so that people and countries from the south benefit. With the recent commitment of the Church of England to trade justice at the Synod, we believe we can get the wider Anglican community worldwide to be part of the international movement. Together we can make a difference."

"The Church of England's membership of the Trade Justice Movement comes at an important and opportune time of renewed moral and political energy around the issue of trade justice," said the Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark and vice-chairman, public affairs, of the Mission and Public Affairs Council. "With the British Government chairing the G8 summit and the EU presidency in 2005, there's a sense that we are at a tipping point where it might yet become possible to develop a trading system that allows developing countries to remove trade barriers at a pace and in a way that lies within their own development plans.

"Membership of the Trade Justice Movement will provide a useful means through which the Church can lend its support to the campaign to revise the rules and practices underpinning world trade in a way that provides trade justice for rich and poor alike."

Details of the Trade Justice Movement can be found at www.tjm.org.uk.