Fair Trade is important.  A child dies of poverty every 3 seconds, and many of those living in poverty produce the food and clothes that we take for granted. Fair Trade can help to change that.

Fair Trade is a partnership between consumers in the west and producers in developing countries.

Many of the products that we buy in supermarkets are grown by people who are not paid properly for their work, and as a result who have to live in poverty.  Furthermore many items are produced in terrible working conditions, with children working over 80 hours a week with dangerous chemicals.

Fair Trade guarantees:

• A fair price to producers in developing countries – enough to pay a living wage
• No child labour
• Safe working conditions
• Protection for the environment
• Rights for women
• A social premium
• A social premium

You can click here for more information on The FAIRTRADE mark and Fairtrade products.

Objections to Fair Trade

Not everyone thinks Fairtrade is a good idea.  There was an article published in the Economist magasine in December 2006 which suggested that Fairtrade was actually damaging to producers in developing countries.

In fact the arguments in this article do not stand up to robust scrutiny.

You can download a summary of the arguments and the reasons they are not valid here.

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