Dear Priti Patel - using aid to promote trade may not be legal...
1st August 2016,
A development campaigning group is consulting lawyers about a legal challenge to UK aid minister Priti Patel's strategy of using aid to promote UK trade deals.
| Global Justice Now press release |
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1 August 2016 |
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Priti Patel’s intention to use aid to promote trade may not be legal according to campaigners
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| Responding to news that Priti Patel was intending to use the UK’s aid budget to promote a new round of trade deals between the UK and other countries, Aisha Dodwell from campaign groupGlobal Justice Now said: “If Priti Patel is planning to use the UK aid budget to develop post-Brexit trade deals, it’s not only worrying, it could also be violating the International Development Act. This legislation from 2002 enshrines in law the principle that aid money can only be spent for the purpose of poverty reduction, so using aid money to further the UK’s trade agenda could be illegal unless the primary motivation is that of combatting poverty. “Regardless of the legality of such a move, Priti Patel’s aid strategy is veering dangerously towards subsidies and support for big business rather than to addressing the conditions of extreme poverty and inequality that are found in many parts of the world. Since taking up her new post, thousands of people have emailed Priti Patel and called on her to make sure the aid budget isn’t used on projects that primarily aim to promote the UK’s national or trading interests and instead address the structural causes of poverty and inequality. This announcement shows that she has been ignoring them.” Global Justice Now are consulting with lawyers about the possibility of making a legal challenge to the use of aid money to promote UK trade deals. Notes: 1) Read the Global Justice Now briefing - 0.7% on aid:a small contribution towards justice and equality 2) In July, over three and a half thousand people emailed Priti Patel via a Global Justice Now action making a series of demands about the new UK aid strategy. The email said: Dear Priti Patel, UK aid is vital in addressing inequality, but DfID has come under increasing criticism for: • Using expensive consultants • Promoting privatisation of public services in the global south • Aid schemes that benefit corporations at the expense of poverty alleviation I urge you to implement the following recommendations: Aid spending must: 1. Tackle structural causes of poverty and inequality 2. Strengthen public services and support remunicipalisation 3. Go to programmes with good democratic accountability Aid should not be spent on: 1. Expensive for-profit consultants 2. Helping multinationals gain market access to countries in the global south 3. Privatisation of public services 4. Projects that primarily aim to promote the UK’s national or trading interests 5. Projects with policy conditionality Yours, 
Rt Hon Priti Patel, Secretary of State for International Development |
