Fair Trade

What is fair trade?

Fair Trade means an equitable and fair partnership between marketers in western nations and producers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world. Fair trade partnerships provide low-income artisans and farmers with a living wage for their work and support sustainable production practices. Some principles of fair trade are:

Paying a fair wage and/or price that covers the costs of sustainable production and living
Offering employees opportunities for advancement
Allowing all members and employees to participate in the organization's decision making process
Providing equal employment opportunities for all people, particularly the most disadvantaged.
Engaging in environmentally sustainable practices.
Being open to public accountability.
Building long-term trade relationships that allow for long-term planning and sustainable production practices.
Providing healthy and safe working conditions within the local context.
Not engaging in child or forced labor
Providing financial and technical assistance to producers whenever possible.

"Trade is neither inherently good nor bad. But how it is conducted is a matter of great concern....Trade can either contribute to the process of sustainable development or undermine it. Given the rapidly accelerating destruction of the earth's natural resource base, there is no question what the choice must be." Hilary French, author of Costly Tradeoffs: Reconciling Trade and the Environment

Why fair trade in Africa? - Today Africa is the world's leading resource of raw materials. Yet, Africa is the poorest continent on Earth. The question is why the continent with the richest natural resources is also the poorest. One obvious answer is trade disadvantages and practices by other nations that help to keep Africa from moving up the ladder. For the last 400 years, since Africa entered the global trade market, it has not received a fair price for its raw materials or human power. This has had a serious impact on the wealth of the people and nations of Africa. Recently, Fisseha Adugna, Ethiopia's ambassador to London, estimated that Ethiopia lost around $900 million from unfair coffee trading in the last five years. If their Western trading partners had paid a fair price, Ethiopia would have had almost a billion dollars to build schools, health clinics, water and sewer facilities, and roads. For another example, today the global price for a pound of shea butter is only fifty cents. Fifty cents for a product that takes up to 30 hours of human labor to produce. In addition, Western governments heavily subsidize their farmers, further depressing the price for raw agricultural goods produced in Africa.

Solution - One of the best policies for reducing the poverty epidemic in Africa is to implement fair trade practices immediately. If Africans receive living prices for their resources, they would be able to send their children to school, creating human capital investments. Fair prices would encourage young Africans to stay in their countries, start their own businesses, and create employment and other opportunities. Fair prices also empower the women of Africa and help bring about economic and gender equality. African women produce the largest part of Africa's agricultural products. Fair trade will also reduce the frustration of young Africans, who turn on each other through uprisings and civil wars as a result of economic and social frustration. Finally, Fair Trade practices will help reserve Africa's rich cultural and natural heritage, since they call for the preservation of culture and the environment. GACE together with African Fair Trade Council and the Agbanga Karite Group are working on a small scale to promote fair trade principles both in Africa and in the rest of the world.