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Fair Trade ? "Fair Trade" is powerful idea conceived by people conscious of the impact of their consumption on the peoples of the southern hemisphere, and is a sound alternative to runaway globalization. Fair Trade deals not only with importing goods and ethical marketing, but also with the promotion of local development--often in partnership with non- governmental organizations--so that a process of self-development begins by emphasizing local potential. Educating the public is our central aim. It is through public awareness campaigns, interventions involving the media, conferences, and events in public places through which we raise eco-consciousness of the effects of trade, but also with the intent of affecting the decision-making process surrounding it. Fair Trade improves the living conditions of the underprivileged especially when it concentrates on those products involving the most abundant factor of production in a poor country, namely labor. The clothing industry is without any doubt one of the most labor intensive industries on the planet! By focusing on workers in the clothing industry we can help the peoples of the southern hemisphere in an unparalleled way! Through a synergy with actors of change, the Fair Trade initiative can be a lever to improve the living conditions of men and women in the North and well as the South, as well as promoting a profound solidarity. Conditions Do Not Improve Between 1950 and 2001 the world GDP increased almost sevenfold, and exports of agricultural products in 2001 are eighteen times their 1950 level. Since 1970 the world total of exports of agricultural products more than doubled. (Drawn from the OMC site "World Trade Developments in 2001 and prospective customers for 2002.) Despite these facts underdeveloped countries, which are the world's principal producers of raw materials as well as the principal exporters of same, are unable to leave the cycle of poverty and debt. The More They Export, the Less We Pay The share of raw material agricultural exports as a percentage of total international trade continually falls because of weak prices on international markets. While the rich get richer at an unprecedented rate, the current system of international trade leaves millions of the poorest people in the world mired in the most terrible poverty and increases inequality between rich and poor countries. The dominant paradigm states that exchanges of an economic nature ought to follow as far as possible the "laws of the market". These "laws of the market", however, do not have anything to do with nature or naturalness and are unceasingly distorted by protectionism practiced covertly, and rarely explicitly, by developed countries against products coming from developing countries. The role of transnational corporations in this is enormous. These octopus-like groups are responsible for the fall in prices of many products. Indeed, 45% of world exports occur outside of traditional markets, such as from mother company to subsidiary company, and the reverse. These companies' unrivalled position in the market make them the true decision makers on the prices of commodities.
Between 1980 and 2000: Since the end of the colonial era north-south trade has increased prodigiously without there being any complementary reduction in the problems arising from economic, political, and cultural differences between these countries. If Africa, Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and Latin America were each able to increase their share of the world export market by 1% the resulting profit would lift 128 million people out of poverty. (Report: "Two Weights, Two Measurements", Oxfam International, 2002.) Trade, Not Aid! Raw materials represent more than half of the export incomes of 37 of the countries classified by the IMF and the World Bank as Heavily in Debt Poor Countries (PPTE). For 15 of these 37 countries raw materials account for more than 90% of their export incomes. (International Task Force, 1999.) It is only raw material exports that generate for these countries the foreign currency necessary to import essential products such as oil, basic technologies, and agricultural products. In 1964, when UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) first met, representatives of underdeveloped countries launched the famous cry, "Trade, Not Aid!" Because of the bitter report on the inability of international trade to solve (or, at the very least, not worsen) the poverty of the increasing population of the planet, the Fair Trade movement carries, as its central objective, the desire to reduce problems due to the economic disparity between the communities of poor countries and those of developed countries. In Quebec and Canada For the last 10 years in Quebec Fair Trade has been an expanding movement which is at the head of movements as varied as alternative movements involved in ecology, labor, and many and various non-governmental organizations. In Canada Fair Trade focuses on foodstuffs such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, rice, and spices, though it is also involved with the craft industry. However, even while Fair Trade foodstuffs have been an unqualified success since their introduction, penetrating markets small and large, products of craft industries and clothing makers remain confined to alternative networks too little known to the general public. The arrival of the certification of cotton by FLO--International and Transfair Canada will help us make Fair Trade cotton clothing available to the general public. |
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