Is Fair Trade a tool to appease the conscience or a political lever?

Résumé du document

Fair Trade is an approach based on precise criterion of sustainable development; relations of exchanges of long duration and direct relations removing the intermediaries. According to these criterions, the Fair Trade organizations of North thus begin to buy these products at a just price which ensures the producers a decent life by taking into account not only the real cost of production, but also the financing of projects of local development in education, workers' instruction and health. Reciprocally, the South producers involve themselves in co-operatives, associations or companies with social purposes respecting the interdependent economic values and organizing their work in a transparent and democratic method, while respecting the requirements of the sustainable development and the fundamental principles with the labour laws. The Fair Trade movement pursues a double aim: on the one hand, to get better living standard and working conditions for the small South producers by creating structures to market their products near the North consumers attentive with North-South solidarity, and on the other hand, to attract the publics attention to the injustice and the inequalities caused by the common rules of the international trade and to act close the political and economic authorities.

Extraits

[...] Speakers also go in the schools to explain what hides behind a chocolate cup and to show that it is possible to be a consumer and interdependent. But each country has its tools. Of a pleasant trade . and equitable seeks to sensitize young people and adults with the importance of responsible consumption and the Fair Trade. To consume, it is to vote, and it is a daily political gesture. By consuming in a responsible way, each one of us can change the world, because our consumption modes have a major impact on the environment and the company. [...]

[...] FINE is a network which regroups four labels (Appendix TRIBUNE, French newspaper Walid Abdelgawad, “Fair Trade and international civil society, Review of International economic law p 197-232 See the Max Havelaar's folder about the Fair Trade in http://www.maxhavelaarfrance.org/La-situation?var_recherche=coca This charter describes this terrible reality. The charter is on website of platform of Fair Trade”. Definition of FINE (Appendix Belong on FLO, Fair Trade Standards. How do we set and guarantee standards in www. fairtrade.net/ standards.html and the charter for the Fair Trade of the Fair Trade platform “Imperative engagement” (www. [...]

[...] They has many manners there of approaching it but I wished on the one hand the apprehend from the consumer's point of view which is one of the principal actor of this partnership and on the other hand from a political point of view and of his steps which raise many questions. Lastly, the interview realized with the various international students enabled me to note that the young people fell themselves more and more concerned with this new trade and to wish to engage with an aim of making evolve the things. [...]

[...] Chapter Fair Trade, a political weapon? The extraordinary rise of the Fair Trade was accompanied by an increase in labels and logos face to which the consumer is struggling to find himself there. After the passion, it is the time of the doubt. This doubt period falls under the change of the Fair Trade at the end of the Eighties, when it passes the supermarkets' gates. The Fair Trade products were distributed in networks of stores created as of the Forties' end to the United States, then in Europe, by NGO in link with groups of the South artisans. [...]

[...] This new phenomenon makes the Fair Trade, one of the most dynamic economic sectors in Europe. From 60 to 70 percent of marketed volumes, Europe offers its main setting- up to the Fair Trade. The sales turnover total of the products profiting from an equitable label has quintuplet in four years to attain nearly billion euros in 2006. The European consumer can find a fair product in more than supermarkets and more than specialized shops. In France to date percent of French population hear about the Fair Trade and know the approach this type of trade represents even though each French, on average, spends 2 euros for the label products whereas the Swiss population spends 20 euros per year. [...]