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         Ethyl argued the ban unfairly expropriated its assets by eliminating profits that Ethyl expected to earn in the Canadian market. Canada finally settled the suit with Ethyl for $13 million plus legal costs. In addition Canada changed its law to declare the additive MMT "safe." 
        Free markets, efficiency and profitability promise a world where everyone stands to gain. Indeed, the gross domestic products of countries involved in free trade continue to expand. The world bathes in a pool of prosperity. Moreover, free trade offers all people around the globe access to the fullest gifts of creation, while it sews the world together in a patch quilt of interdependence.
        Yet beyond the euphoria about the positive side of free trade, the dark side reveals workers in sweatshops oppressed for the sake of production and abandoned communities devastated for the maximization of profit. The Canadian case over MMT demonstrates that unfettered free trade can affect important environmental, health and consumer laws of participating countries. 

        Because the global economy sees most environmental laws as a hindrance to the cheap production and free flow of goods, the land, the forests and other natural resources get sacrificed for production with little accountability for the environment. Creation becomes another input to production, not the common heritage of all.   Also, global production favors mass production. Local clothing, regional crafts and cultural ways of producing goods stand in defiance of the global economy. The same music, the same style shirt and the same hamburger sold the world over lend themselves to mass production where even unskilled workers can learn a few key steps for manufacturing. Style and taste become standardized, because mass production brings massive profits.

        The world economy currently possesses an over-capacity for production.  Thoughtless consumption stimulated by cheap prices produces throw-aways, garbage and pollution that denigrate the quality of life for everyone. Over-capacity motivated by the need for continual growth makes frivolous items that get discarded after a brief use. This approach demands ever larger landfills.  For people of faith unfettered free trade trips a moral switch. Cheaper goods, profits and abundance sound appealing, but they must weigh themselves against certain moral trade-offs.

        For example, economics justifies the global economy by stressing cheaper prices for consumers. But, the economy must also serve the worker with just wages, and not just the consumer with cheap prices.  Corporations increase profits and enhances the value of their stock by downsizing and outsourcing services. Yet, the company exists, not merely for the stockholders, but for a broad collection of "stakeholders" including stockholders, management, workers, vendors, customers, the community and the environment. John Paul II teaches that the global workbench creates an interdependent community of workers, and not simply an impersonal engine to maximize profits.

        Economics aims to produce a mountain of material goods fueled by ever expanding growth. But, all production uses physical resources and all life exists in a delicate web that eventually becomes the inheritance of future generations. The global economy uses a simple formula for profit maximization: reasonable prices, low overhead and cheap labor. But, "Consumers first," lacks balance. "Shareholders only," lacks responsibility. "Jobs before the environment," lacks creativity.   The call of the Christian blends balance, responsibility and creativity to turn free trade into fair trade.

Read other articles of senlightenmentpiritual  in the March 2000 edition of The San Francisco Charismatics or return to the Main Menu by clicking on the blue. Fr. John Rausch, a Glenmary priest, teaches at the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center, Berea, Ky. His column appears monthly in many Catholic journals and in ours beginning this month, courtesy of the Friends of the Good News. When you purchase books, videos, etc. from Amazon.com this site, we receive a referral fee from them that support the work of the Friends of the Good News.