According to Lyon, Bezaury, & Mutersbaugh (2010), Fair-trade is a “process which helps improve the well-being and economic stability of disempowered farmers, by using certified commodity-chains to foster development”. For the KHC company, Fair-trade is essential because they want to provide and endorse exceptional coffee beans that they are proud to use; that means, “using coffee that is good and fair for both our coffee drinkers and for farmers are essential” (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.). In fact, over the past 20 years, Kicking Horse won numerous awards in many categories, including Canada’s Fastest- Growing Companies, Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs, Canada's Favourite Fair-trade Product and number 15 Best Workplace in Canada (Kicking Horse Coffee, n.d.).
How has international trade involving Canada changed over the 50 year period in the graph?
For every upside, there is a downside, and this certainly is the case for free trade in Canada. The successes listed above, also appeared in the United States and Mexico, which impacted our country. For every job that was created for them, some were lost elsewhere. Ontario, in result of jobs created elsewhere,:
Canada has a free market economy. A free market economy allows people to freely buy, sell, and produce what they want, with limited government interaction. Canada is also split into four economic regions, Atlantic, Central and Eastern, the West, and the North. In the Atlantic Provinces, fishing is the major industry. Because of overfishing, however, the area has moved to manufacturing, mining, and tourism. In the Central and Eastern regions, the paper and lumber industry are important to the region. It is also the leading financial and industrial center. To the West, farming and ranching are major activities in the region. This area produces large amounts of wheat to export. They also have the world’s largest natural gas and oil reserves.
Threat of Substitutes: There are various substitutes for fair trade coffee in the industry such as regular coffee, tea etc but not only coffees but in the general beverages market e.g. Coca Cola, Water etc. As a result of this there is a very high threat of substitutes.
The idea of trading first started long before the confederation of Canada was formed. French travelers known as the Voyageurs had been trading guns and furniture with the First Nations people for furs and fish. The French learned of First Nations people that had exceptional hunting and fishing skills, these people were known as the Coureurs de Bois. The french befriended the them and began to trade much more often with them. These trades caused the English to want to jump on trading and began to rival the French. The trades made by the English caused the creation the Hudson’s Bay Company for fur trade.
Investopedia.com states, “free trade is the economic policy of not discriminating against imports from and exports to foreign jurisdictions. (Buyers and sellers from separate economies may voluntarily trade without the domestic government applying tariffs, quotas, subsidies or prohibitions on their goods or services.)” In the previous decade, one of the many controversial subjects in the Canadian economy included whether or not it was beneficial for our federal government to eradicate free trade or open it up to other nations. During my research, I discovered that free trade agreements between Canada and other nations were not as beneficial as they may have seemed for they were often business and market oriented.
In 1985, a report published by the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects of Canada recommended that Canada establish a free trade agreement with the United States (Quinlan, 318). Brian Mulroney took the advice and set foot to establish such an agreement. This lead to the creation of the Free Trade Agreement through the process of the Free Trade Debate. The Free Trade Debate has strengthened our economy and has reinforced our relationships with neighbouring countries. Therefore, the Free Trade Debate has positively impacted Canada into making Canada what it is today.
In my opinion, the top growth areas for Canada’s future trade are machinery including computers, electrical machinery and equipment, and aircraft /spacecraft. Essentially, I included all the industries that involve technology and the sciences because that is how civilization will advance. First of all, there are already predictions of what the future will hold with the advancement of technology, such as artificial intelligence, robots, and digital currency changes. For instance, we can already see how the internet, phones, and online banking has changed not only our lives but the potential of businesses. There was even a poll in the US, where 59% of Americans are optimistic about the coming technological and scientific changes, and how it
Canada is comprised of ten provinces and three territories, a small number that can conceivably focus on redefining internal barriers for the convenience of the entire country. The Globe and Mail article – Canada’s new free-trade agreement? How about a deal between provinces by Perrin Beatty refers to trade that is occurring inside of Canada in relation to the internal barriers of trade. As a country, Canada’s first priority when it comes to trade is not necessarily trading issues between provinces, but instead trading between other countries. Canada should first and foremost be correcting barriers for trade between all of its borders before continuing to create agreements that make trading easier for only some provinces.
Approximately, $2 billion of trade is conducted between the two countries each day. The volume of trade between the two countries was about $658 billion dollars in 2014(U.S. Census Bureau
Trade is a very important factor in making a country successful, and it has certainly helped many countries for many years. Back when there was no concept of countries, trade simply meant moving certain materials from one place to another, and when people needed access to things they could not find where they lived, they'd simply travel and find it aboard. Eventually territory was owned and people could no longer keep peace when it came to taking things from elsewhere. That was when the word trade came into existence, and people began to make agreements to transfer goods for something in return, whether that meant other goods or money. In 1855 when Canada was in the hands of the British, free trade was agreed
Fair Trade’s consumer recognition has tripled in the last five years, proving the company’s sustainability in a global market. As of today, this organization works with more than 800 companies to verify more than 6,000 products as Fair Trade. In 2009, Fair Trade Certified products generated $1.2 billion in retail sales, indicating their large-scale business practices.
Fair Trade Coffee Fair Trade promotes socially and environmentally sustainable techniques and long-term relationships between producers, traders and consumers The world coffee industry is in crisis. A flood of cheap, lower-quality coffee beans have pushed world market prices down to a 30-year low. Many now earn less for their crop than it cost them to grow. Many coffee farmers around the world receive market payments that are lower than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debtWithout urgent action, 25 million coffee growers' face ruin.
Being a conscious consumer currently is no small task, with multiple choices of mega stores filled with products that our most time often than not filled with products that are cheaply produced. Moreover, the big company’s give little regard to the producer. This is where the concept of fair trade comes from. In a piece of Harvard’s Journal of Economic Perspectives states that “Fair Trade is a labeling initiative aimed at improving the lives of the poor in developing countries by offering better terms to producers and helping them to organize.” (Dragusanu, Giovannucci, Nunn, 2014) The article continues to say that “…Fair Trade-certified coffee exports were 1.8 percent of global coffee exports in 2009…” (Dragusanu, Giovannucci, Nunn, 2014) A reason why this percent maybe so small could be due to peoples who make the argument that Fair Trade is not economically sustainable. This meaning that if these producers are underneath the
From the graph, cocoa farmers are severely underpaid. Under the fairtrade agreement, farmers can now receive a fair price for their cocoa. Whittaker’s has two fairtrade agreements for their dark chocolate, allowing them to paint an ethical picture of their company. This would attract consumers who are concerned about the origins of their food. (Lindsay