Clearly the US Government needs to take a role in ending poverty. This will become the focus as we look at TANF reauthorization in 2002. Those regulations include specific environmental product and factory standards as well as minimum wage and labor condition standards for local workers. The Church of the Brethren has no official statement regarding free trade. However, Brethren respond to the effects of free trade.
Free trade lowers the environmental standards of local communities.
Free trade eliminates possibilities for a minimum wage standard in host countries. Trade can exist in an environment where workers and communities are not exploited. Marc Rittle Polls show that US citizens believe that our government spends 15 to 20 percent of the national budget on foreign economic and development assistance to underdeveloped countries. We also give less foreign aid today than at any other time in US history. Work is based on Annual Conference and General Board Statements and Resolutions.