The Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment offers the following statement as a guideline toward what we envision is necessary in order to make the current trade model more fair and just. We encourage you to read our alternative policies document, “Trade as if People and the Earth Mattered: a working document on alternatives”.

Trade As If People and Earth Matter: A Working Document on Alternatives,
seeks to contribute to the emerging dialogue on a new framework for trade that holds the promise of promoting just and sustainable development in the countries and areas where it is most needed. Trade policies and agreements must put people first! They should further genuine social and economic development for our neighbors around the world while preserving and creating good jobs here at home. They must support – not hinder – governments in adopting policies to protect public health and the natural environment. Trade policies must strike a balance between creating a predictable structure for international trade and preserving the policy space necessary for governments to foster and secure economic, social and human development for all their citizens.

Tourism development has been hailed by the International Financial
Institutions (IFIs--World Bank, International Monetary Fund) and the
World Trade Organization as a means for economic gain by creating jobs
and enabling states to earn foreign exchange to invest in development.
It has also been a strategy used in economically disadvantaged regions
of the U.S. This article explores the often overlooked negative impacts
of the strategy.

Brief report on our work with partners in Africa and the EU which calls
for African governments and the EU to respect human dignity, heed the
calls of the poor and marginalized, and craft an Economic Partnership
Agreement that gives priority to authentic human development over
corporate profits.

Every person has the right to an adequate amount of nutritious food, through production or purchase, to sustain a dignified human life. Despite decades of domestic and international initiatives, however, 852 million people on Earth are still hungry.

The way that the United States structures its food and agricultural system has global consequences. How people eat and the agricultural policies that are set by U.S. politicians directly affect the lives of farmers and farmworkers, consumers and citizens, both domestically and internationally. Changes to U.S. domestic agricultural policy, in conjunction with restructuring international trade and investment policy, have human rights implications and the potential to alleviate or exacerbate poverty and food insecurity worldwide.

Debates surrounding the 2007 Farm Bill, the piece of legislation outlining U.S. food and agricultural policy, have already begun and the livelihoods of many people, both domestically and internationally, depend on the outcome of these debates.

"The history, goals and foci of the IGTN."