Resolution
Adopted by the CCAR
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Adopted by the Board of Trustees
Central Conference of American
Rabbi
March 30, 2003
Background
Globalization involves the increasing
integration of economies across national borders, affecting goods and
services, as well as ideas, information, and technology. Today,
globalization is creating a qualitatively new economy, with the rules
increasingly defined by international agencies such as the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World
Bank, as well as the G-7/G-8 summits (the annual economic conferences
of the world’s wealthiest countries).
Liberalization of markets, domestic and
international, brings with it the opportunity for economic growth,
particularly for poorer nations. Trade and competition can lower
prices internationally, allowing more consumers to enter the market.
Trade can also generate new employment opportunities as multinational
corporations spread new technologies and advance business processes.
Globalization brings nations together and can encourage greater
cooperation. By bringing nations into a world spotlight,
globalization potentially can lead to openness and visibility in
economic decision-making processes (“transparency”) and
democratization, which can lead to improved conditions for millions.
But international trade
can also bring a degraded environment, human rights abuses, and
lowered labor standards, internationally and domestically, both as a
result of increased economic activity in countries with no or low
standards and through the process known as “harmonization,” in which
the World Trade Organization replaces specific national standards with
uniform global standards.
Fundamental values of equity, democracy, and environmental
protection are at stake in the way international trade is organized
and governed by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Power is not
currently distributed equitably among WTO members. There is a
tremendous difference in negotiating power between developed and
developing nations. Most directly, developed countries can afford to
dedicate hundreds of experts to negotiations while developing nations
can only afford to send one or two negotiators.
The WTO’s sessions are not democratic, and
negotiations and disputes of resolutions are conducted behind closed
doors without an appeals process. There is also a lack of public
input and disclosure. These conditions are also prevalent in other
multinational trade bodies. Since any domestic safety standard can be
deemed unfair, and therefore illegal, by the WTO, depending upon its
rulings, it is possible that eventually only the weakest standards
will remain in effect. International labor and environmental
standards should not be reduced to the lowest common denominator;
rather, nations should work together to raise international standards
while helping other nations develop.
Intellectual property rights agreements made by the
WTO have taken on critical importance in the battle against the global
AIDS pandemic and other epidemics. Decisions made by WTO ministers
will have life and death consequences for the more than 38 million
living people infected with the HIV virus living in the developing
world. Currently, less than 1% of these victims have access to the
anti-retroviral treatments necessary for survival once a patient has
contracted full-blown AIDS. However, even when the corporations that
hold the patents on these drugs reduce their royalties, neither the
victims nor their governments can afford the cost of full treatment.
An exception to the WTO negotiated Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement that would allow poor
nations to produce or purchase generic versions of these desperately
needed drugs is a critical component of a coordinated response to the
AIDS crisis and other epidemics plaguing the developing world.
Comprehensive debt relief is another necessary
component of the global response to the AIDS virus. Countries saddled
with crippling debt payments cannot afford to devote sufficient funds
to critical needs such as health care, education, and infrastructure
development. For the world’s citizens to have a chance to survive
this pandemic, everyone must have access to medical care, both
preventative and therapeutic, education, clean drinking water, and
sufficient food. Only with a commitment by lending nations and
international financial institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank,
to deeper and broader debt cancellation can poor nations realistically
hope to provide for their citizens.
Our tradition
teaches that from the time of Creation, human beings are enjoined to
share our planet and its resources. When we uphold this principle and
our understanding that every human being is created b’tzelem Elohim,
“in the image of God”, we come to understand the interconnected
nature of our existence, and the need to focus on these values as we
enter an era of greater global interaction.
THEREFORE, the Central Conference of American Rabbis
resolves to:
Support free
trade, provided the following principles are upheld in international
agreements:
Trade and
investment relationships must assiduously protect and promote the
dignity of all people, ensure the development and well-being of people
in all nations with special concern for the more than one billion
people living in poverty, secure the earth’s natural environment in
all its bounty and diversity for present and future generations, and
that facilitate food security and affordable access to necessary
medications;
Trade and
investment policies and decisions must be transparent, involve the
participation of all stakeholders, empower the most vulnerable, raise
and maintain international standards rather than lower them, and
reflect the realities of the needs of local populations;
Trade and investment systems must
actively safeguard the environment, place a high premium on
sustainability, and account for environmental and social costs in the
pricing of goods and services; and
Trade and investment practices must take into account the
well-being of workers through means such as job safety, fair and
humane working conditions, and sustainable wages;
Call on the governments of the United States
and Canada to assume leadership roles by entering into international
agreements that promote democracy, strong environmental, labor, and
human rights standards, and by ensuring that these agreements result
from a process in which all parties have access to comparable
negotiating resources;
Call
on the governments of the United States and Canada to work with other
lending nations and international financial institutions (such as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) to cancel the debt
crippling the world’s most impoverished nations so as to allow these
nations to direct sufficient funds to the critical areas of health
care, education, and infrastructure development, and especially to
provide preventative measures, care, and treatment in the battle
against the global AIDS pandemic.
Urge American and Canadian companies and investors to commit to
strong environmental, labor, and human rights standards in their
business practices, both domestically and abroad;
Urge American and Canadian companies to
ensure that the public here and abroad has access to information on
how corporations owned or operated in the United States or Canada
treat their workers, local communities, and the environment;
Participate in interreligious
dialogue on international trade and investment;
Provide educational material and information
to our congregations on the implications of globalization and call
upon them to act in the spirit of this resolution.
A state which would be committed to peaceful co-
existence with the State of Israel — we reject the Palestinian demand
for a right of physical return to the State of Israel which would
create in effect two Palestinian states.