FAIR TRADE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Jillian Powell | 32 pages | 10 Apr 2014 | Hachette Children's Group | 9780750283359 | English | London, United Kingdom What is fair trade? Definition and examples - Market Business News It also allowed such products to be sold alongside non-fair trade counterparts in large supermarket chains, expanding their availability from fair trade shops to mass consumer markets. FINE was dedicated to increasing worldwide awareness of the fair trade movement through active campaigning in political circles and organizing public events. Since the midth century the fair trade movement has changed the lives of thousands of workers in developing countries by providing them with access to European and North American markets. The movement created a global industry and continues to expand, with organizations at all levels involved. Critics, however, have argued that the expansion of the fair trade movement has come with significant costs. Some have charged that the fair trade label has been used as a marketing tool to entice consumers in developed countries to pay higher prices for certain products whose sale does little to benefit producers in poor countries. They argue that the fair trade label, whose initial aim was to empower local producers by identifying fair trade businesses and products, has been diluted over time and is now being used merely as a guarantee against exploitation. Furthermore, corporate plantations and big businesses have emerged in poor countries to compete against local fair trade products to the detriment of workers. Despite its imperfections, however, the fair trade movement continues to provide opportunities to marginalized workers throughout the world. Fair trade Article Additional Info. Article Contents. Print print Print. Table Of Contents. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. See Article History. History There is no consensus regarding a starting date of the fair trade movement. Get exclusive access to content from our First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today. Learn More in these related Britannica articles:. International trade , economic transactions that are made between countries. Among the items commonly traded are consumer goods, such as television sets and clothing; capital goods, such as machinery; and raw materials and food. Other transactions involve services, such as travel services and payments for foreign patents see service industry. Oxfam International , privately funded international organization that provides relief and development aid to impoverished or disaster-stricken communities worldwide. The original Oxfam was founded at Oxford, England, in to raise funds for the feeding of hungry children in war-torn Greece. Alternative trade "humanizes" the trade process — making the producer-consumer chain as short as possible so that consumers become aware of the culture, identity, and conditions in which producers live. All actors are committed to the principle of alternative trade, the need for advocacy in their working relations, and the importance of awareness- raising and advocacy work. The concept of a Fair Trade school or Fair Trade university emerged from the United Kingdom , where the Fairtrade Foundation now maintains a list of colleges and schools that comply with the needed requirements to be labeled such a university. They must have a written and implemented a school-wide fair trade policy. The school or university must be dedicated to selling and using Fair Trade products. They have to learn and educate about Fair Trade issues. Finally, the Fairtrade Foundation requires that schools promote fair trade not only within the school but throughout the wider community as well. A Fair Trade University is one that develops all aspects of fair trade practices in their coursework. This push received positive reactions from faculty and students. To begin the process, the university as a whole agreed that it would need support from four institutional groups—faculty, staff, support staff, and students—to maximize support and educational efforts. The University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh also offers many courses in many different disciplines that implement fair trade learning. They offer a business course with a trip to Peru to visit coffee farmers, an environmental science class that discusses fair trade as a way for cleaner food systems, an English course that focuses on the Earth Charter and the application of fair trade principles, and several upper-level anthropology courses focused on fair trade. The University of California at San Diego understood the efforts of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK, but they recognized they wanted to be more detailed about how their declaration as a Fair Trade University would make an actual change in the way on-campus franchises do business with the university. They also required constant assessment and improvement. The main premise of being a Fair Trade University for the University of California, San Diego is the promise between the university and the students about the continual effort by the university to increase the accessibility of fair trade- certified food and drinks and to encourage sustainability in other ways, such as buying from local, organic farmers and decreasing waste. Fair Trade Universities have been successful because they are a "feel good" movement. The movement also has an established history, making it a true movement rather than just a fad. Thirdly, Fair Trade Universities are effective because they raise awareness about an issue and offer a solution. The solution is an easy one for college students to handle, just paying about five cents more for a cup of coffee or tea can make a real difference. Worldshops or fair trade shops are specialized retail outlets offering and promoting fair trade products. Worldshops also typically organize various educational fair trade activities and play an active role in trade justice and other North-South political campaigns. Worldshops are often not-for-profit organizations and run by locally based volunteer networks. Although the movement emerged in Europe and a vast majority of worldshops are still based on the continent, worldshops can also be found today in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Worldshops' aim is to make trade as direct and fair with the trading partners as possible. Usually, this means a producer in a developing country and consumers in industrialized countries. The worldshops' target is to pay the producers a fair price that guarantees substinence and positive social development. They often cut out any intermediaries in the import chain. A web movement has begun in the s to provide fair trade items at fair prices to consumers. One popular one is Fair Trade a Day [82] where a different fair trade item is featured each day. Discrepancies in the perspectives of these southern producers and northern consumers are often the source of ethical dilemmas such as how the purchasing power of consumers may or may not promote the development of southern countries. These countries include Cameroon , Nigeria , and the Ivory Coast. Studies in the early s show that the income, education and health of coffee producers involved with Fair Trade in Latin America were improved, versus producers who were not participating. Producers in the Dominican Republic have set up associations rather than cooperatives so that individual farmers can each own their own land but meet regularly. These goods are marketed locally in Chile and internationally. The sale of fair trade handicrafts online has been of particular importance in aiding the development of female artisans in Latin America. The Asia Fair Trade Forum aims to increase the competency of fair trade organizations in Asia so they can be more competitive in the global market. Garment factories in Asian countries including China , Burma , and Bangladesh consistently receive charges of human rights violations, including the use of child labour. In India , Trade Alternative Reform Action TARA Projects formed in the s have worked to increase production capacity, quality standards, and entrance into markets for home-based craftsmen that were previously unattainable due to their lower caste identity. Fairtrade one word refers to FLO certified commodity and associated products. Fair trade two words encompasses the wider fair trade movement, including the Fairtrade commodities and other artisan craft products. Fair trade commodities are goods that have been exchanged from where they were grown or made to where they are purchased, and have been certified by a fair trade certification organization, such as Fair Trade USA or World Fair Trade Organization. Such organizations are typically overseen by Fairtrade International. Fairtrade International sets international fair trade standards and supports fair trade producers and cooperatives. It has been suggested by Shima Baradaran of Brigham Young University that fair trade techniques could be productively applied to products that might involve child labor. Coffee is the most well-established fair trade commodity. Most Fair Trade coffee is Coffea arabica , a type of coffee known to be grown at high altitudes. A lot of emphasis is put on the quality of the coffee when dealing in Fair Trade markets because Fair Trade markets are usually specialized markets that appeal to customers who are motivated by taste rather than price. The fair trade movement fixated on coffee