Holy See: Put Justice at Base of Trade

Affirms Economic Systems Must Protect Human Dignity
GENEVA, Switzerland, DEC. 7, 2009 ( Zenit.org ).- International trade should be based on social justice, particularly as the poor are hit hardest by the global recession, says the Holy See's permanent observer at the Geneva U.N. offices.

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi affirmed this when he addressed the Seventh Session of the WTO Ministerial Conference, Vatican Radio reported. The three-day event concluded last Thursday and focused on "The WTO, the Multilateral Trading System and the Current Global Economic Environment."

During the meeting, ministers of the 139 WTO member countries evaluated the state of negotiations for a worldwide agreement on the liberalization of trade.

Though "every country has the right to define its own economic model," Archbishop Tomasi said, systems should be thought out in the context of "inclusive and equitable globalization," in which "solidarity, investment, the transfer of technology, the capacity to build and the exchange of knowledge are means at the service of development." All of this, he added, should be "based on the centrality of the person."

Economy should protect the dignity inherent to every human person, the prelate affirmed. And that is why the market should be directed to the common good, responding above all to the needs of the poorest.

To attain this objective, the Holy See representative contended, there must be "a decisive step toward a system of trade based on the principle of social justice."