Letter to Senate Committee on Finance from Bishop Hubbard Regarding Trade Agreements, April 6, 2011

Letter from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace to Senate Committee on Finance Regarding Trade Agreements, April 6, 2011

I am writing on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) regarding the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) which Congress may consider in the near future.  While I address the three agreements in general, I focus mainly on the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia because of the possible impact of the agreement on the complex situation in Colombia. 

The U. S. Bishops’ Conference addresses the moral and human dimensions of trade policy because of trade’s potential to promote integral human development in the poorest countries and among the poorest communities around the world.  As pastors and teachers in a global Church, our experience of the impact of trade and other aspects of economic integration, their possibilities and perils, is both broad and deep.  The fostering of stronger economic relationships and growth is a shared priority.  Trade should also play an essential role in reducing poverty and conflict by helping to shape more just domestic and international legal and commercial frameworks.  

The Bishops’ Conference does not take specific positions for or against particular trade agreements. Rather we offer a moral framework for examining such agreements. As Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, stated, “The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centered (No. 45).”  Our teaching and experience puts people—especially the poorest and most vulnerable— first.  Our moral vision urges strong and enforceable protections for workers and the environment, the provision of access to technology and knowledge for those at the margins of society, and ways to ensure that the rural poor are not displaced and left without a livelihood.  

letter-to-senate-committee-on-finance-from-bishop-hubbard-on-trade-agreements-2011-04-06.pdf