Fair Trade: Consumerism for Global Justice
Introduction
The Fair Trade movement is rapidly becoming an emerging and dynamic strength to respond to the negative influence of globalization, or rather, to the contemporary international trade injustice. While on the other hand, there is criticism on fair trade, claiming that fair trade is not fair and it goes against free market theory. This term paper aims at introducing the development of fair trade, justifying its economical and ethical significance on the international trade and production chain, and also reflecting on its limitations from different respective.
The term paper is structured starting from conceptual framework, which focuses on defining the term of “fair trade”,
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One set of standards applies to small-scale producers, who don’t depend on hired workers all the time, but run their farm mainly on their own and their family’s labour. The other set applies to hired labors, whose employers pay decent wages, guarantee the right to join trade unions, ensure health and safety standards and provide adequate housing where relevant.
The Standards Unit (SU) within FLO is responsible for developing and revising fair trade standards. Fair trade standards refer to: (a) generic standards, (b) product standards, (c) fair trade minimum prices (FTMP) and fair trade premiums (FTP). Producers and traders must meet applicable standards for their products to be certified as fair trade.
Fair trade prices
According to fair trade standards, most products have a fair trade price, which is the minimum that should be paid to the producers for their goods. This fair trade minimum price (FTMP) is intended to cover the average producers’ costs of sustainable production (COSP) per product. If global or regional minimum prices are determined, otherwise national prices are set. Producers or workers (in the case of hired labour situations) of fair trade products also receive a fair trade premiums(FTP) in addition to the minimum price. The determination of a minimum price may involve the determination of the related premium (Andreas Kratz, 2010).
Impact of fair trade
a fundamental labor standard of the highest priority, necessary for building a sustainable, just and
The set price will make the producers comply with the standard costs and which will be beneficial to the consumer at the end. Businesses will need to follow the standards and pledge that no child will experience slave labor in their work and production of products. If Business does not follow the practices we can boycott the products. Business should be investigated and held accountable. For the consumer to only purchase fair trade products until the item becomes a fair trade product. As consumers we can look at labels, be more aware of fair trade products. We can talk with our local grocery companies, coffee shops, and look for the fair trade products.
Fair-trade is a trading partnership that focuses on sustainable development for poorer producers. they do this by providing better trading conditions and raising awareness of their situation.
Trading fairly is a movement which strives for fair treatment for farmers. In a fair trade agreement, farmers will
In conclusion, the topic of free trade is difficult to debate and often controversial as it has advantages but also disadvantages. Nonetheless, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits as it one, contravenes basic moral ideologies, two, makes the rich, richer, and the poor, poorer, and three, jeopardizes our declining environment. All in all, free trade will neither support nor sustain our country to be ethical, prosperous or
The terms free and fair trade sometimes go hand-in-hand but there are distinct differences between the two. According to Wikipedia, free trade is a system of trade policy that allows traders to act and or transact without interference from the government. Free trade implies the trade of goods without taxes (tarrifs) or other trade barriers such as quotas, subsidies,
Who am I? I work around twelve to fourteen hours every single day, I make barely enough money to survive, I work in some of the most dangerous conditions in the world, and I am exploited based on the poverty I live in. I am a garment worker in a developing country. While most people would assume that this describes slaves a long time ago, this is actually a current issue that we have a much greater impact on than we may realize. When we purchase clothing from stores such as H&M or Forever 21, with every dollar tank top, or a cheap pair of jeans we purchase, we are encouraging this sort of modern day slavery. The label for Fair Trade was created in 1988, and over the years, the certification has changed rapidly and now there are a number of standards companies have to abide by to achieve the Fair Trade label. Due to this, consumers are now guaranteed of the morality of the product (Marcovitz page 27). The book Fair Trade describes what Fair Trade really stands for by saying, “Fair Trade displays a radical shift in trade policy by using morality instead of personal and corporate gain as the motive in the world economy” (Fair Trade page 1). This means that instead of getting wealthy being the main goal for the entrepreneurs at the top of companies, the goal is to help workers and make the world a more fair place. They do this by paying a living wage to their employees, giving them contractual rights, giving them a reasonable amount of hours, and countless other of
Free trade is exchange of goods and commodities between parties without the enforcement of tariffs or duties. The trading of goods between people, communities, and nations is not an innovative economic practice. Nations are however the main element within a free trade agreement. By examining free trade through three different political ideologies: Liberal, Nationalistic, and Marxist approaches, the advantages and disadvantages will become apparent. Theses three ideologies offer the best evaluation of free trade from three different perspectives.
2009). This in itself shows the high standards of sustainability can be made from free trade (Gidney, M. 2009). Fair trade provides two key benefits that can help with the current world economic crisis. First it provides sustained benefits for producers that can help maintain their business through fluctuations of the world market (Gidney, M. 2009). Second, fair trade helps to maintain fair prices, additional social premium, and long-term partnerships that help provide better living standards for millions of people in over 60 countries (Gidney, M. 2009).
Free trade areas, FTA, are economic integration arrangements in which barriers to trade (e.g. tariffs), exchange of goods and information among member nations are removed. It is arguable to say that fair trade aims to create equilibrium between LEDC's, less economically developed countries and developed nations in terms of trading activities and ethics. In saying this, free trading between more economically developed countries and LEDC's will mean
Throughout the years, there has been a constant controversy over whether the World Trade Organization should enforce global free trade. The primary idea is to establish in which all are happy. Although there are many advocates for trade liberalization, as well as many who oppose. I believe free trade may be advantageous for both large and small-industrialized countries, but it does not favor the smaller developing countries needs primarily.
I used to think fair trade was a great concept, now I believe there are better options, like direct trade and whole trade. Though buying fair trade is still a better option than supporting the free trade industry. My high school used to do a fair trade annual fundraiser, and I learned about the positives of fair trade, but I never considered the negative aspects. Mike Woodard, briefly touched upon fair trade. He stated that with a capitalist system, fair trade won’t really work. There are still middlemen who receive a large portion of the profit meaning even though consumers pay more for fair trade, a lot is still not even reaching the workers.
The fair trade concept, based on the idea of both economic activity and social development, is replete with ethical and sustainable echoes. Ransom (2002 p 20) asks, 'can the
The international trade of goods across the world accounts for approximately 60% of the world Gross Domestic Product (The World Bank, 2014). A great proportion of goods transactions occur every second. The primary question is whether international trade benefits a country as an entirety, and, if so, why would a country implement protective trade policies to restrict particular exports? To address this question, this essay aims to explore the impact of trade on various economic stakeholders, including consumers, producers, labour and government and, furthermore, will compare models and theories with reality to ascertain the true winner/ loser in the international trade market.
Although there is always free trade during international trade, which makes the biggest benefits of free trade to stimulate domestic development and maximize the welfare of society. More and more countries prefer to loss benefits to help domestic firms for the state’s politic, economy and culture avoid other countries’ influences. This essay is