Fair Trade
What's Fair is Fair
Fair Trade is an organized social movement promoting equitable standards for international labor, environmentalism, and social policy. Goods which are fairly traded may or may not be obviously labeled. They range from handcrafts to agricultural commodities, focusing particularly on exports from developing countries to developed countries.
The intent of fair trade is to work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of powerlessness and economic insecurity to a position of self-sufficiency, and to become stakeholders in their own industries.
Some of the goals of the fair trade movement
include: creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers, transparency and accountability in business practices, payment of a fair price for goods and services, gender equity, reasonable working conditions, and concern for the environment.
Advocates for fair trade include a wide variety of international, religious, social and environmental organizations - including Oxfam, Amnesty International and Caritas Internationalis.
|
