London MEP joins Oxfam global petition to make Trade Fair

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 4th Sep 2003

London's Liberal Democrat Euro-MP, Baroness Sarah Ludford, has joined the 3.7 million people already signed up to Oxfam's global petition to make trade fair.

The petition, also known as the "Big Noise", calls for a change to world trade rules that are currently rigged against the poor, and is addressed to key decision makers including trade Ministers meeting in Mexico next week.

Baroness Ludford MEP said:

"Fairer trade could lift millions of poor people around the world out of poverty. Hundreds of everyday products - from computers to T-shirts to coffee & tea - are produced by people in poorer countries, but they hardly benefit at all at present while the rich get richer."

"I appeal to world leaders who are meeting at the WTO Ministerial in Cancun to make trade fair. They must stop protecting their own markets while destroying local markets through dumping hugely subsidised agricultural products on countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America."

"I also urge all Londoners to sign Oxfam's Make Trade Fair petition and add their voices to mine. I ask them to join me in switching to Fair Trade products as part of their weekly shopping".

Oxfam's petition was launched in April 2002 as part of a broad-ranging campaign to make trade fair and will continue to grow until trade rules are finally changed. Please see www.maketradefair.com. Among the first million people to sign up to the petition are his Holiness the Dalai Lama, musicians Chris Martin from Coldplay and Bono from U2 and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.