Last week a group of 106 faith leaders have collaborated on a letter they have signed and sent to the Democrat and Republican leadership of both houses of Congress. In this week’s Acton Commentary, Victor V. Claar explains that it hasn’t been aid that has lifted people out of poverty, but trade and access to markets.

While many of the world’s politicians would like to take credit for cutting extreme global poverty in half in just 20 years, and the aforementioned faith leaders seem quite ready to thank politicians for their achievements, the source of this success is far simpler: economic growth. As the Economist magazine has put it, “ … the biggest poverty-reduction measure of all is liberalising markets to let poor people get richer. That means freeing trade between countries … and within them.”

The full text of the essay can be found here. Subscribe to the free, weekly Acton Commentary and other publications here.