GA-2 16, Topic-Free Vs Fair Trade, Final

Montana Model UN High School Conference

General Assembly Second Committee Topic 2: Free Trade vs. Fair Trade with Developing Countries 1

1 October 2016

There are two basic approaches to international trade. The first approach, free trade , is the idea that government intervention and protectionist methods such as tariffs and import controls should be limited, allowing prices to be set by supply and demand and, therefore, to be as low as possible. The second approach, fair trade , is the idea that free market prices fail to provide for worker security in countries where labor is in abundance and wages are often inadequate to support workers’ most basic needs. Fair trade advocates argue that prices should be set to take such situations into account. The emphasis in free trade then, is on low prices, while the emphasis in fair trade is on fair prices.

Those in favor of free trade argue that states should take several actions to reduce protectionism. First, states should reduce or eliminate tariffs (also known as customs duties), which are taxes on imports. 2 An example of a tariff is the US tariff on imported steel from China, which was set at 265.79% in March of 2016 to protect the US steel industry from the low prices that were accompanying a large “influx of foreign steel.” 3 Second, reducing protectionism calls for limiting subsidies. Subsidies are the financial assistance paid to support domestic businesses to make them artificially competitive against imports. In the European Union (EU) for example, domestic wheat farmers are being paid $200 per ton of wheat; however, outside of the EU, wheat can be purchased at $150 per ton, showing that EU farmers are being subsidized by $50 per ton. 4 Third, reducing protectionism calls for reducing quotas. Quotas are ceilings on how many goods can be imported; they are used by governments to restrict the growth of imports. 5 For example, to protect the American textile industry, in 2005 the US instituted a quota on the import of cotton shirts, trousers and underwear from China. 6

Advocates of free trade argue that reducing protectionist measures increases the supply of goods and therefore lowers their prices, which is good for consumers. But critics of free trade argue that free trade is unfair to producers, especially in developing countries, which typically produce similar items and therefore see falling prices for the goods they produce. Falling prices for developing country exports translates into low wages for workers, lack of environmental regulation, and low tax revenues for governments to invest in development. Thus free trade is often charged with making wealthy countries wealthier, while worsening—or at least failing to improve—the living conditions of the poor in developing nations.

Proponents of fair trade see fair trade as the solution to these problems. Their goal is to eliminate poverty in developing countries by empowering producers. Oxfam, an influential non-governmental organization involved in

2 Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse, International Relations , 4 th edition (Pearson and Longman, 2008), p. 176.

3 John W. Miller and William Mauldin, “U.S. Imposes 266% Duty on Some Chinese Steel Imports,” Wall Street Journal, 1 March 2016, Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-imposes-266-duty-on-some-chinese-steel- imports-1456878180 .

4 John Lingard, “Agricultural Subsidies and Environmental Change,” Wiley.co.uk ; [article online]; available at http://eu.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/egec/pdf/GB403-W.PDF .

5 Goldstein and Pevehouse, International Relations, pp. 176-77.

6 Elizabeth Becker, “U.S. Moves to Limit Imports From China,” The New York Times 14 May 2005; [article online]; available at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/business/worldbusiness/14textiles.html .

Montana Model UN High School Conference development, defines fair trade as “paying poor producers a fair price and helping them gain the necessary skills and knowledge to develop their businesses and work their way out of poverty.” 7 The fair trade movement focuses on setting fair prices for exports from developing countries, with the fair price determined by what is a fair wage in the local context and with importers purchasing as directly as possible from fair trade farmers and firms to maximize the income that producers make (instead of money going to middlemen). In addition, proponents of fair trade seek to improve the working conditions of people in the developing world by making sure that people are working under fair labor conditions; that their cultural identity is being respected; that fair trade producers invest in their community with their fair trade premiums; and that environmental sustainability is ensured. 8

Just as there are critics of free trade, there are critics of fair trade. The main criticism revolves around market intervention. Fair trade requires oversight to ensure that requirements are being met, and it is often criticized for setting a floor price on goods that is several times above the market price. 9 The fair trade floor price for coffee in 2004, for example, was $1.26 per pound, while over the last several years the market price for coffee had been between $.40 and $.60 per pound. 10 Furthermore, in 2004 The Wall Street Journal reported that retailers were inflating the price of fair trade foods and failing to pass the profits back to the growers. 11 In one case, the retail price of fair trade bananas was more than 16 times what the growers received. Some suggest that fair trade proponents allow this to occur because if they were to criticize retailers about pricing, retailers would stop selling fair trade products. 12

Another criticism of fair trade is the potential impact it can have on economic and food security in developing nations. Because one of the conditions in producing fair trade items is often that no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides be used, some argue fair trade may decrease yields and hinder food production. Also, rising prices of a particular luxury good such as coffee (due to demand in the fair trade market) may reduce demand for and therefore production of necessary food crops, as well as overproduction of the fair trade item. Additionally, some economists argue that the guarantee of a “price minimum” gives fair trade farmers no incentive to diversify or improve quality. 13

The UN has done a great deal of work to promote free trade and little direct work to promote fair trade. 14 Yet, although there are few instances in which the UN explicitly discusses fair trade, many UN Member States and UN agencies support fair trade practices. In 2006 for instance, the UN Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) reported that development aid should be used to improve the business skills of

7 Susan Ariel Aaronson and Jamie M. Zimmerman, “Fair Trade?: How Oxfam Presented a Systemic Approach to Poverty, Development, Human Rights, and Trade,” Human Rights Quarterly 28, no. 4 (2006), p. 1017.

8 The Fair Trade Federation, “Frequently Asked Questions,” available at http://www.fairtradefederation.org/become- a-member/frequently-asked-questions/ .

9 The floor price is the lowest price that that fair trade item can be sold at. Goldstein and Pevehouse, International Relations, p. 187.

10 Valerie Orth, “World Fair Trade Week: Fair Trade Action and Justice. Celebrate it by Shopping!,” Corporate Social Responsibility, 4 May 2004, available at http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/20468-World-Fair-Trade- Week-Fair-Trade-Action-and-Justice-Celebrate-it-by-Shopping-,

11 Steve Stecklow and Erin White, “What Price Virtue? At Some Retailers, `Fair Trade' Carries A Very High Cost,” Wall Street Journal 243: 111, 8 June 2004.

12 Stecklow and White, “What Price Virtue?,” Wall Street Journal .

13 “Food Politics: Voting with your trolley,” The Economist, 7 December 2006, http://www.economist.com/node/8380592 .

14 United Nations, “Millennium Development Goals and Beyond 2015, Goal 8” available at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/global.shtml .

Montana Model UN High School Conference rural communities to help them avoid exploitation by entrepreneurs and middlemen. 15 Furthermore, the UN commended the Rwandan coffee industry for rebounding after the 1994 genocide by forming collectives that “effectively cut out the middlemen in the coffee trade, while using sustainable methods to conserve the environment and developing the community in the process.” 16

Reaction to both free trade and fair trade has been mixed. Free trade supporters argue that it helps to provide jobs in the developing world and provides global consumers with lower priced goods. By contrast, fair trade advocates argue that lower priced goods come at the expense of fair wages, employment practices, and living standards. In addition, they point out the double standard being practiced by developed countries themselves who often violate free trade principles by protecting their own markets in certain key goods.

History and Current Events

In the 19 th century, trade was considered the engine of national economic growth. As countries developed, they dropped many import restrictions to take advantage of the lower prices that come from specialization. Most countries did not pursue this path until they were quite developed and therefore competitive in international markets, however. Britain, France, Germany, and the US all developed behind protectionist walls before becoming free trade advocates. By the first decade of the 20 th century, there was a great deal of trade even among rivals such as Britain and Germany, as well as within the British and French empires. But World War I brought this to a screeching halt. Once it was at war with Germany, Britain refused to honor the international gold standard it had set up to facilitate trade by making it easy for countries to deal with currency conversion.

Until 1945, trade was at a standstill, both because of the wars and because of the Great Depression, when developed countries such as the US imposed stringent import restrictions, such as the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. After World War II, the US and its western bloc allies set up the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to reduce tariffs on trade among them. GATT was the first international organization established to promote free trade. It achieved several successes including the 1964-1967 Kennedy Round of talks, which achieved tariff cuts worth $40 billion, and the 1986-93 Uruguay Round of talks that included agriculture and services for the first time. 17

In 1995, GATT was reinvented as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and given more power to enforce free trade rules. In addition, due to the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the WTO had much greater membership than the GATT. Today the WTO has 164 member states, with China entering in 2001 and Russia in 2012.18 However, the blossoming membership of the WTO in the mid-1990s meant little to critics who argued that the current structure of free trade only benefited wealthy countries who possessed the infrastructure necessary to enjoy it. 19

Until recently, the most notable display of disapproval of free trade was the 1999 mass protests in Seattle captured in the recent film, “Battle in Seattle.” But in summer 2008, the failure of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations provided further evidence of widespread resistance to free trade. Negotiations broke down over the issue of agricultural protection by developing countries, with India, China, and the US, in particular, unable to agree

15 United Nations News Centre, “Fair trade in wild natural resources can lift millions out of poverty – UN report,” UN News Centre , http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17645&Cr=&Cr1 .

16 Kristen Avery, “Coffee Trade and its MDG Ramifications,” UN Chronicle Online Edition 44, no. 4 (2006), available from https://unchronicle.un.org/issue/promises-keep .

17 BBC News, “A Century of Free Trade,” 12 February 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/533716.stm .

18 World Trade Organization, “Members and Observers,” 29 July 2016, https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm .

19 BBC News, “A Century of Free Trade.”

Montana Model UN High School Conference about whether developing countries should be able to impose tariffs on agricultural imports to protect producers from import surges and price declines. 20

Although the Seattle protests were a significant display of the anti-free trade movement, they were not the first. Free trade’s rival, fair trade, is an economic and social movement that dates back over sixty years, beginning when an organization known as Self Help Crafts (now Ten Thousand Villages) started buying needlework crafts from Puerto Rico and selling them in the United States. 21 During the 1950s and 1960s, the movement continued to grow and eventually spread to Europe.

Since its creation, the fair trade movement has grown into an international phenomenon. 22 What were once small “alternative trade” groups have become large non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and for-profit corporations that lobby governments and international institutions to establish fair trade practices. The variety of fair trade products has grown as well, with coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, wine, fruit juices, nuts, spices, and rice all bearing fair trade certification. 23 One of the major draws to the fair trade movement is the idea that consumers can help determine policy—and politics—through their pocketbooks. According to Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics” (2002), when people who want to have an impact on the conditions in which items are produced go into a store “they can do something—they can make decisions about what they are buying and send a very clear message.” However, how effective this strategy has been on altering actual trade practices remains debatable.24

Despite the increase in anti-free trade sentiment and increasing popularity of fair trade, there have been major developments in recent years that demonstrate the difficulties surrounding international trade reform. One struggle facing the fair trade movement has been regulation requirements. The first step was the 1988 creation of the “Maxx Havelaar” fair trade label in The Netherlands. Conceived by a priest and a Dutch NGO, the label marked bags of coffee that had been bought, traded, and sold in a fair manner. The development of a fair trade label allowed not only Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs), but also companies competing in the global market, to sell fair trade products. Since then, a number of other fair trade labeling organizations have been set up in Europe and North America. In 1997, a worldwide fair trade labeling association called Fairtrade Labeling International (FLO) was created. 25 Besides labeling, the fair trade community has also created a monitoring system for FTOs known as the International Fair Trade Association. Today, fair trade labeling and certification remain private ventures, and an authoritative fair trade standard has yet to be defined.

While regulation requirements have slowed the expansion of fair trade, the structure of the international financial system and power distribution amongst actors has arguably had a much greater effect on its expansion (or lack thereof) today. The most glaring example of this was the long, drawn out failure of the Doha Round, a trade negation round of the WTO that began in 2001. According to the WTO, the aim of the round was to “achieve major reform of the international trading system through the introduction of lower trade barriers and revised trade rules,” with the particular aim of helping poorer countries out of poverty. 26 After fourteen years of failed meetings and

20 Stephen Castle and Mark Lander, “After 7 Years, Talks Collapse on World Trade,” New York Times , 30 July 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html .

21 World Fair Trade Organization, “60 Years of Fair Trade,” WFTO website updated December 2015, available at http://wfto.com/about-us/history-wfto/history-fair-trade .

22 Richard Vernon, “A case study in the possible: how Britain's Traidcraft went from church hall to the London Stock Exchange, without losing the faith,” Sojourners Magazine 36, no. 5 (May 2007), p. 14.

23 World Fair Trade Association, “60 Years of Fair Trade.”

24 “Food Politics: Voting with your trolley,” The Economist, 7 Dec. 2006, http://www.economist.com/node/8380592 .

25 World Fair Trade Association, “60 Years of Fair Trade.”

26 World Trade Organization, “The Doha Round,” accessed 15 September 2016, available at https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm. 4

Montana Model UN High School Conference uncompromising arguments, the Doha Round was declared dead by the WTO in December 2015 “after nearly a decade spent comatose.”27

The talks failed as a result of multiple different trends and factors seen within international alliances and the greater international financial structure. Though there was a ‘mask of solidarity’ between the developing countries, deep divisions existed-- specifically between agricultural net importers and exporters—which prevented constructive proposals for liberalization. In addition, countries’ economic situations changed drastically over the course of the fourteen-year round. Most significant was the rapid rise of China, which became a global financial powerhouse yet continued to insist on maintaining developing country status. Finally, as a world economic leader, the US proved unable to negotiate with some of its own industries (specifically its farm industry, which demanded open market access abroad as well as subsidy cuts at home).28 Further impeding the US’s ability to broker a global trade deal has been the rise of China, which has newly gained influence and power within the economic realm as it has become the number one exporter ($2.34 trillion in 2014) and second largest importer ($1.96 trillion in 2014). 29 The inability to negotiate the terms of free trade because of these and other reasons rendered the talks useless and pushed states, specifically the US and China, towards competing bilateral or multilateral deals instead.

Among these deals are the TTIP, the TPP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and others. The most discussed and controversial within the US has been the TPP, which was agreed upon (but has not yet been ratified) in February 2016. The deal is between the US and 11 countries from four different continents. 30 The pact hopes to strengthen economic ties between the nations involved by cutting tariffs and increasing trade to boost growth, and according to US President Barack Obama will make the US, rather than China, the leader on global trade. 31 This deal has, however, been strongly criticized abroad and domestically – criticism that has been greatly amplified throughout the primary and general presidential elections in the US.

Finally, 2016 has seen an increase in protectionist tendencies from leading economies around the world, further complicating the free versus fair trade debate. The harsh criticism of the TPP and TPIP has been seen from both leading Republican and Democratic candidates. The success of these candidates (most notably Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and later, Hillary Clinton) demonstrates that they have tapped into an issue affecting many Americans—although free trade makes goods less expensive, it often moves factories and services overseas and puts people out of work in the short term. This vow to help American workers facing competition from abroad is a very common one, but is often followed by trade deals that are more appeasing to China. However, “broad political distress this year over the loss of well-paid working class jobs to global competition, coupled with mounting concern about China’s increasingly assertive military posture, suggest that the next president could actually follow through on the pledges.” 32 If the next US president does pursue a more protectionist trade policy, this could have major implications for China and other Asian countries whose economies depend on trade with America.

27 “The Doha Round Finally Dies a Merciful Death,” Financial Times, 21 December 2015, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9cb1ab9e-a7e2-11e5-955c-1e1d6de94879.html#axzz4KNvfGFxf .

28 “The Doha Round Finally Dies a Merciful Death.”

29 World Trade Organization, “International Trade Statistics 2015,” p. 44, available at https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2015_e/its15_toc_e.htm .

30 “TPP: What is it and why does it matter?” BBC News, 27 July 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/business- 32498715 .

31 President Barack Obama, “The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade,” The Washington Post, 2 May 2016, available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/president-obama-the-tpp-would-let- america-not-china-lead-the-way-on-global-trade/2016/05/02/680540e4-0fd0-11e6-93ae-50921721165d_story.html .

32 Keith Bradsher, “In Trade Stances Toward China, Clinton and Trump Both Signal a Chill,” New York Times, 29 June 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/business/international/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-trade- china.html .

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Britain has also displayed protectionist tendencies in recent years, specifically in its surprising referendum vote in favor of exiting the European Union in June of 2016. 33 Fifty-two percent (17.4 million) of British citizens voted to fully withdraw from the EU, which will pull them out of the world’s largest trading zone and end the commitment to the free movement of labor, capital, goods, and services across borders. 34 This vote was made despite predictions by economists that it could do major damage to the British economy, and again signifies citizen dissatisfaction with the current state of international free trade.

Previous Committee Work on This Topic

There has been a great deal of work by the UN to promote free trade. For example, every year the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meets with international trade organizations such as the WTO and the UN Conference on Trade and Development to discuss trade. At these meetings, there are discussions regarding tariff reductions, increases in bilateral trade agreements between developed and developing nations, and the overall promotion of “sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth, job creation, productive investment and trade.” 35

At the UN Third International Conference on Financing for Development in 2015, UN Member States agreed on a series of measures to “overhaul global finance practices and generate investments for tackling a range of economic, social, and environmental challenges.”36 This conference resulted in an agreement called the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which is also very favorable to free trade and includes no mention of fair trade by name. The report states: “We will continue to promote a universal, rules-based, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive, non- discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO), and well as meaningful trade liberalization.”37

Free trade agreements like the TPP and TPIP have been discussed in the most recent session of the General Assembly by other countries that hope to create their own similar agreements. The President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, recently claimed that Africa does not need development assistance from developed countries, but ‘a fair chance’ to trade with the rest of the world, and called for the creation of a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) to be expedited. 38 The Prime Minister of Vietnam, along with other Southeast Asian leaders, called for initiatives that would promote political, economic, social and cultural cooperation and integration, including the generation of new free trade areas. 39

Although the 71 st session of the GA just began on September 13 th , 2016, there has not been substantial discussion of fair trade. To date, the UN has overall done little on the issue at all, however, individual Member

33 Steven Erlanger, “Britain Votes to Leave E.U.; Cameron Plans to Step Down,” New York Times, 23 June 2016, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/25/world/europe/britain-brexit-european-union-referendum.html .

34 Steven Erlanger “Britain Votes to Leave E.U., Cameron Plans to Step Down.”

35 UN, “Special High-level Meeting of ECOSOC with the BWIs, WTO, and UNCTAD,” 12 March 2012, Available at http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/2012_4SHL_Newsletter.pdf .

36 United Nations, “Countries reach historic agreement to generate financing for new sustainable development agenda,” 16 July 2015, Available at http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/press-release/countries-reach-historic- agreement.html# .

37 United Nations, “Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development,” 13-16 July 2016, http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AAAA_Outcome.pdf .

38 “Africa needs ‘fair chance’ to trade, not sympathy or aid, Ghana’s President tells UN Assembly,” UN News Centre, 21 September 2016, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54999#.V-bSVvArLIU .

39 UN News Centre, “At UN, Southeast Asian ministers highlight region’s efforts on Global Goals,” 24 September 2016, Available at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55097#.V-bTsvArLIU .

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States often call for consideration of fairness in trade policy. For example, in September 2008, the President of Seychelles argued in a speech to the General Assembly (GA) that the “distorted world trade regime is an obstacle for development.” President Michel further stated that developing countries were “obliged to follow WTO rules to the letter, even to the extent that they may undermine domestic economic policies formulated to protect vulnerable sections of society.” 40 These comments make it clear that some developing countries continue to struggle under the free trade system.

Since the international economic crisis began in 2008 with the crash of the US housing market and led to bank failures and high rates of unemployment around the world, more and more criticism of free trade has been voiced at the UN. In 2010, for example, the US and China were at odds about whether China’s subsidies to domestic producers of alternative energy unfairly discriminate against American producers. 41 In this case, the US is calling for China to increase free trade by eliminating special treatment for Chinese industries. In other situations, US policy is to “Buy American.” For example,

The Buy American provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (section 1605 of Title XVI), provides that, unless one of three listed exceptions applies (nonavailability, unreasonable cost, and inconsistent with the public interest), and a waiver is granted, none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by the Act may be used for a project for the construction, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a public building or public work unless all the iron, steel, and manufactured goods used are produced in the United States. 42

Although economists argue that trade protectionism reduces welfare both nationally and globally by making products more expensive, calls for protection of national economies and particular producers are increasingly heard both by governments and by international organizations. For example, a recent report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) urged developing countries to emulate India, where

several socially conscious enterprises have recently had some success in expanding ICT [information and communication technology] services work to rural communities, … resulting in new income-earning opportunities for some poor people in rural areas. 43

Other actors, by contrast, are calling for more international openness and cooperation instead of more narrow national rules. For example, in October 2010, representatives from thirty-three Asian-Pacific countries called for “governments to streamline global trade procedures and ensure that regulations are simple, consistent and transparent.” According to the director of the Trade and Investment Division of the UN Economic and Social Commissions for Asia (ESCAP), “on average, it costs 20 per cent less for Asian nations to trade with North America and Europe [than to trade with each other] due to cumbersome border procedures, sometimes requiring hundreds of approval documents.” 44

40 UN News Center, “Global Trade Regime Detrimental to Developing Nations, Seychelles Tells UN,” 25 September 2008, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28257&Cr=general+assembly&Cr1=debate ?.

41 Michael Wines and Xiyun Yang, “China Escalates Fight With U.S. on Energy Aid,” New York Times , 17 October 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/business/global/18trade.html?ref=international_trade_and_world_market .

42 US Department of Energy, “American Investment and Recovery Act,” available at http://www.energy.gov/recovery-act , accessed 25 September 2016.

43 UN News Centre, “UN highlights importance of ICT sector in creating opportunities for the poor,” 14 October 2010, available at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36451&Cr=unctad&Cr1 =.

44 UN News Centre, “Asia-Pacific’s developing nations urge end to red tape in trade,” 7 October 2010, available at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36365&Cr=asia&Cr1=pacific.

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While these high-level debates about national policies rage, fair trade has caught on at the local level in many places and has, according to its proponents, done more than many other efforts to improve the lives of ordinary people. In August 2010, for example, 35 metric tons of raisins grown by a group of fair trade farmers in Parwan, Afghanistan were shipped to London. According to the marketing director of a British grocery store that is selling the raisins,

I think … any project that involves bringing people together will be viewed as positive. A country like that, that has been at war for 30 years, if you can bring calm and happiness to a few families’ lives and that can grow, why wouldn’t you want to do that? 45

The 35 Afghan farmers who participated in the pilot program are eager to extend the agreement:

“We want to find many more foreign markets — this is our hope,” Mr. Hamidullah said, proudly showing visitors row upon row of his ripening grapes a few minutes after urging his Mercy Corps trainers to extend the program past its current end date of May 2011. “When we get such good benefits from our products, we can improve our whole lives: our homes, our machinery, our education.” 46

Conclusion

Today, many developing countries believe that the current system of trade impedes their economic growth. During the recent Doha Round of WTO negotiations, developing countries left the negotiating table, contending that the needs of their countries were not being considered. 47 The failure of the Doha negotiations and rising protectionist tendencies make it clear that something needs to change to bring developing and developed countries back to negotiations so that the world economy can grow. Does the solution lie in encouraging more free trade or more fair trade?

In researching and writing your county's position on this issue consider the following questions:

• Is your country a developing or a developed country? • What are your country’s main imports and exports? • How has your country’s economy been affected by the international economic downturn? Are its trade levels recovering? If so, why? If not, why not? • Is your country a member of the WTO? If so, what was its perspective on the Doha Round? • Is your country more supportive of free trade or fair trade? Why? • Does your country export or import fair trade goods? If so, how have they affected your country’s development? If not, does your country have industries that could benefit from fair trade? • Since trade is so important to economic and social development, should the GA take up the issue of fair trade? If so, should it emphasize free trade, fair trade, or both? • Is governmental or international regulation, as opposed to the current non-governmental regulation, necessary for fair trade to be taken seriously? Who should be responsible for such regulation? • What role—if any—can free trade and/or fair trade play in helping your country achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?

45 Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, “Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers,” New York Times , October 8, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/global/09raisins.html ?.

46 Lemmon, “Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers.”

47 UN News Center, “Collapse of Doha round of global trade talks disappointing, says Ban,” 30 July 2008, available at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27534&Cr=WTO&Cr1=trade ?. 8

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