Who is behind the Freedom to Trade (F2T) campaign?

The Freedom to Trade campaign was launched in London on April 1, 2009. It is a joint initiative of IPN (www.policynetwork.net) and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (www.atlasnetwork.org)

The F2T Coalition comprises over 71 organizations in 48 countries. This website will feature information and activities, both by the campaign and coalition, and by individual coalition members.

What is it?
The Campaign seeks to alert the public to the looming dangers of protectionism and to oppose existing and new protectionist measures. We have formed a coalition with 68 other think tanks and civil society organizations around the world.

Why bother?
Trade is the engine of economic growth. It enables specialisation and competition, which drives innovation – leading to increases in productivity and better, less costly goods and services.

Trade also promotes peace. In the 1930s, protectionist tariffs in the US and Europe led to a collapse in trade, exacerbating and elongating the already-severe depression and contributing to the nationalist sentiments that led to the Second World War.

We are now in the midst of a severe global economic downturn. Worryingly, in the past six months countries around the world have introduced new protectionist measures – ranging from subsidies to tariffs to outright trade bans.

These measures must be scrapped or the recession will be made much more severe.

The F2T campaign will monitor and draw attention to existing and new protectionist measures – and will call for their elimination.
 

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