Tip #83 Buy Fair Trade Products

Mainstream global trade often discriminates against the poorest people in the poorest countries. There are many reasons for this, such as unfair rules governing international trade, which oblige many poorer countries to open their own markets to imports while their exports face trade barriers.

Fairtrade is an arrangement designed to help producers in growing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships.
Members of the fair trade movement add the payment of higher prices to exporters and improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries, but is also used in domestic markets (e.g., Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Bangladesh), most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers, and gold (source).

By choosing Fairtrade, people can create change through their everyday actions. A product with the fairtrade mark means producers and businesses have met internationally agreed standards that have been independently certified.

Farmers and workers have a strong voice at every level of Fairtrade, from how they invest in and run their local organizations to having an equal say in Fairtrade’s global decision-making (source).

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