Have you ever heard stories about sweat-shops in China, or underpaid workers in Bangladesh? Unfortunately, those stories are true, but you can help improve the lives of those workers by promoting and choosing to buy fair trade products.
What is fair trade?
Fair trade products promote wage / worker equality and local sustainability, whereas in “normal” trade operations (free trade), weaker and poorer producers are at a disadvantage. To encourage equality, companies offer sustainable prices, giving workers more control and freedom over their lives. (Fairtrade Foundation)
What does this mean for producers / businesses?
The World Fair Trade Organization provides ten standards fair-trade organizations must meet (paraphrased):
- Opportunities are created for economically disadvantaged producers (small businesses, independent family-owned businesses, etc.). No Joe’s Family Snack Shack or Sally and Fred’s Organic Veggies are forgotten!
- There is accountability and transparency. No hidden gimmicks or underhanded tricks: if it says it’s fair trade, it’s fair trade.
- Trading methods are socially, economically, and environmentally fair. There is no “maximum profit for minimum cost” at the small business’ expense here.
- Determination of a fair price is reached through discussion and active participation. There will be a balance between market sustainability and fair pay to the producers.
- Adherence to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other child-employment laws. No forced labour here.
- No discrimination in hiring, payment, training, etc.
- Working conditions are healthy, following national / local health and safety laws.
- Promotes positive improvement. Johnny doesn’t know how to cash a cheque? Fair trade organizations will make sure he gets trained properly.
- Promotes fair trade – even the advertisements are fair!
- Environmentally friendly.
If fair trade is so great, why don’t people buy more fair trade goods?
The obvious point is that the goods will be more expensive; people go to Wal-Mart for a reason: it’s cheap. More critical thinking and research is needed to find the other disadvantages to fair trade. I found an interesting debate, which raises many good questions about fair and free trade [take me there]. For example, What is “fair”? Debates about the tariffs on fair trade is also common.
To say the least, fair trade isn’t perfect, but it is an improvement. There will always be some form of disadvantage, but it’s attempting to tackle an important issue, and that’s what matters. Of course, it is extremely important for fair trade organizations to be as critical as they are helpful. Good intentions can quickly turn bad if they aren’t assessed properly. If fair trade itself can’t improve the world, its message will at least keep encouraging people to search for a solution.
Why don’t we just boycott Wal-Mart?
I do not encourage this at all. Fair trade needs to be a slow transition: fair trade needs to increase while worker exploitation needs to decrease at the same time. Should we boycott Wal-Mart and other large corporations, the workers that are paid very little will only end up being paid nothing.
I also do not encourage judging those who do shop at large corporations. They have made a choice to buy items at these stores. As more fair trade products are introduced to the market, fair trade supporters will need people to shop at these places.
If I can’t boycott Wal-Mart, how can I help?
The most common fair trade items that can be found in North America are mostly food goods and crafts. You can easily find Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks and great stores like Ten Thousand Villages . I highly recommend you take a look at their fair trade page [take me there]. If you see these two icons, then the items are certified to be fair trade by organizations that have good standards:
There are also a lot of other ways to help promote fair trade in your community. A real neat way to encourage fair trade is to become an official Fair Trade Town [take me there]. You can also send letters to political representatives and encourage them to be a voice for fair trade in government. There are a ton of more ways to help foster fair trade production where you live. Get a group together, and commit yourselves to making a change.
I feel like there’s a “but” here… anything you should be warning me about before I got fair trade crazy?
There’s always a “but” when it comes to consumerism. Fair trade in theory sounds great, but we always need to be careful when it’s put into practice. This is the same for many other actions – from foreign aid to democracy. We always need to have be critically thinking about our actions and aware of what’s going on around the world and in our community. Without critical thinking, a pure motive can turn bad really quickly.
It’s nice to see that consumers are willing to pay more for products that are produced fairly, but we cannot assume that what we’re paying for is fair, even if a fair trade logo is displayed. Wal-Mart or Starbucks may be supplying fair trade coffee, but we need to remember that they are big corporations, and helping prevent global poverty is probably not their central motivation.
The market is also a complex creature, and naturally, neither is fair trade. We have to make sure that we understand it, so we can better help those around us and those from other countries. We just can’t buy a fair trade product and assume that the good feeling that follows means the world is all right. That may sound rather cynical, but I’m just saying that we need to get ourselves involved with the process, and not just passive consumers.
So I encourage you all to foster fair trade in your community. Educate others about what it is, and be aware and critical about how it works or how it is carried out. Fair trade isn’t perfect, but it has an important message, and it is our duty to help make it happen.
