The following quote encapsulates the problem the conference seeks to address:
“The history of the slave trade shows a convincing picture of laws made to suit the economic interests of the powerful. Are matters different now? Take sugar, one of the first industrialised food products, the lure for some of the world’s cruellest colonial exploitation. Today, sugar is an egregious example of how trade subsidies and tariffs keep developing countries poor.”The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade left a legacy of trade inequality. The conference will assert that a reparations framework is a suitable human rights instrument in the fight to combat trade inequality.
The Conference is the first in a series of fora that will aim to present cogent and persuasive arguments compelling the development of a policy of trade law reform to counteract the current rules which, as the Conference will argue, are based on institutional racism.
Also see press release for more detailed explanation.