Group Launched to Put Consumers First

Leading Advocacy Groups Establish Coalition to Defend the Global Rights and Liberties of Consumers

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today in an effort to protect the rights of consumers globally, a new action-oriented coalition was launched to defend and advance the genuine interests of consumers and to ensure consumers are no longer ignored in the political and policymaking process. The Consumers Alliance for Global Prosperity (CAGP) seeks to educate and activate concerned citizens in response to costly collaboration between environmentalists, protectionist industries, big labor unions and retail companies.

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Andrew Langer, president of the U.S.-based Institute for Liberty and a spokesman for CAGP, explained, "All too often in discussions about the economy today, the critical relationship between consumers and the prosperity of the poor is totally ignored. The complicity of powerful business, ideological and bureaucratic interests advance their agendas at the expense of prosperity -- both here in America, and around the world.  The time has come to re-link consumers, working families, and global prosperity in the minds of Americans."

CAGP said it would focus on a wide variety of issues involving green protectionism, green jobs and leftist consumer and corporate citizenship policies that often hurt more than help the poor both in the U.S. and globally.

One important issue to consumers is the ability to have access to high-quality, affordable paper products.  "American paper companies, big labor unions like the Steelworkers and radical environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Action Network are colluding to erect trade barriers to block low-cost import products from Indonesia and China. Consumers are the ones who will be harmed, as the price of paper will rise, affecting the cost of almost every good and service imaginable," said Langer.  "What's most egregious is that uncompetitive U.S. paper companies on the brink of bankruptcy are being bailed out by U.S. taxpayers through a special interest loophole for their waste, 'black liquor,' which gets preferential treatment when it is used as a fuel."

Langer added, "We must once again make the defense of the free-market the focal point of consumerism to ensure that individual liberties are reasserted and defended not just for American consumers, but also for those striving for economic freedom and progress in the developing world."  

About CAGP: Consumers Alliance for Global Prosperity is an action-oriented alliance of advocacy groups that promotes economic growth and pro-consumer policies across the world.

For more information, go to http://www.consumerprosperity.com and to schedule an interview please contact [email protected] or call Derrek Hofrichter at +1-202-670-CAGP (+1-202-670-2247)

SOURCE Consumers Alliance for Global Prosperity (CAGP)