Fair trade

The fair trade movement, also known as the trade justice movement, promotes international labour, environment and social standards for the production of traded goods and services. The movement focuses in particular on exports from the Third and Second Worlds to the First World. Standards may be voluntarily adhered to by importing firms, or enforced by governments through a combination of employment and commercial law. Proposed and practiced fair trade policies vary widely, ranging from the commonly adhered to prohibition of goods made using slave labour to minimum price support schemes such as those for coffee in the 1980s. Non-governmental organizations also play a role in promoting fair trade standards by serving as independent monitors of compliance with fairtrade labelling requirements.

Fair trade and politics

The Federation of European Green Parties is, unlike most of its counterparts outside Europe, strongly represented in the European Parliament and is firmly in the fair trade camp. Caroline Lucas, a British Green MEP, argues that

Related Topics:
European Green Parties - European Parliament - Caroline Lucas

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" ... many developing countries called for a study to examine the effects of tariff reductions on local industries and jobs, before being required to open their markets further. Local industries, they say, have already collapsed in most African and least developed countries as a result of previous tariff cuts....The choice is not between global trade rules and chaos: rather, it is between trade rules that undermine sustainability and favour the rich, and trade rules that support sustainability and equity."

Related Topics:
Sustainability - Equity

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A major focus for the Greens is land reform that respects natural ecologies and traditional cultures, while other groups focus more clearly on equity.

Related Topics:
Greens - Land reform - Equity

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The World Bank has taken a positive stance on fair trade. According to the Bank comments in their 2003 study of sustainable coffee markets, sustainable coffees (both fair trade and organic) "can provide such benefits as improved natural resource management; fewer agrochemicals used in production, which decreases costs and health risks; and increased use of rural labour, which provides more jobs for those in desperate need." It should be noted that the definition of fair trade here does not involve government-mandated additional taxes or generic foreign aid.

Related Topics:
World Bank - 2003 - Organic

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The European Commission stated in 2002 that they will support fair trade plans in the private sector.

Related Topics:
European Commission - 2002

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