Commonwealth trade can help end poverty

SIR – This week the heads of government from the 53 member states of the Commonwealth are meeting in London, and one of the topics on the agenda will be trade.

Any discussion on trade and prosperity must be infused with a conversation about fairness and sustainability.

Sadly, increased trade and growth do not necessarily lead to better incomes, reduced poverty and improved human rights. Too many people are paid exploitative wages, and modern slavery and child labour remain real risks in global supply chains.

We urge Commonwealth leaders to support a new agenda for fair trade and use their position to improve the lives of farmers and workers. Fairtrade is making a real difference in the lives of some of the world’s poorest people, but much more remains to be done.

The Commonwealth can lead the way in unlocking the power of trade to end poverty and human rights abuses. Michael Gidney

CEO, Fairtrade Foundation, UK and five others; see telegraph.co.uk

SIR – We, as faith leaders from every Commonwealth country, representing people in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Europe and the Americas, come together in friendship and cooperation to mark the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London.

Not even the remotest corner of the Commonwealth remains unaffected or unthreatened by climate change. Commonwealth citizens, especially the poorest, are struggling. Subsistence communities in African countries have trouble growing crops in increasingly arid earth.

In the Pacific, rising sea levels threaten the existence of whole countries. In Asia, salination is driving people from their land. Arctic communities’ ways of life are being undermined. Ever more violent and unpredictable storms devastate the Caribbean

The crisis of poverty and the crisis of ecology are one; our faiths remind us of the interconnectedness of people and our planet. As a common problem, the crisis requires a common solution.

The Charter of the Commonwealth affirms the foundations for cooperation between nations. But it is time to turn words into action. The heads of government meeting in London must commit to urgent action on climate change adaptation and mitigation, in line with the Paris Agreement, and to pursue every effort to keep the rise in average global temperature below 1.5 degrees. Our people call out to their leaders. We stand beside them.

Most Rev Thabo Cecil Makgoba Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Anglican Church in South Africa

Dr Rowan Williams

Rabbi Alexandra Wright

Senior Rabbi, Liberal Jewish Synagogue Most Rev Julian Leow

Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur

Most Rev Ron Cutler

Anglican Archbishop of Nova Scotia Rev Loraine Mellor

President of the Methodist Church in Britain Rev Vijayesh Lal

General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India

Rt Rev Denis Wiehe

RC Bishop of Port-victoria, Seychelles Cardinal John Atcherley Dew

RC Archbishop of Wellington

Most Rev John Davies

Anglican Archbishop of Wales and 37 others; see telegraph.co.uk