Friday, 27 February 2009
Fair Trade
It's Fair Trade fortnight at the moment. Yesterday I went to the Town Hall for an event to celebrate and promote Fair Trade work. Hopefully there'll be some good pictures of the children from some of our Fair Trade schools. Liverpool got Fair Trade City status in 2004 - I was the lead councillor on it at the time - but there is still loads more we can do to encourage this ethical purchasing. Encouragingly and increasing number of shops stock Fair Trade goods and actually pricewise they can be a good bargain.
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5 comments:
Fair Trade is, of course, a subsidy arrangement that encourages over production in export crops and damages the long-term economic sustainability of developing nations, further enslaving their people in poverty.
It's a difficult pill to swallow, I know, but Fair Trade is part of the problem - not the solution.
Hi - congratulations on your appearence on mastermind tonight - very well done !
Can't agree with you there Andrew.
There is really no such thing as absolutely free trade - there are restrictions etc wherever you look. What the fair trade movement is trying to do is to even the score so that those in developing countries get fairly paid for their work.
Thanks Londinius. The programme was recorded some time ago - seems a very long time ago now. My semi final appearance is in May (22nd I think). That will be nearly a year since I recorded the first round! It is quite a scary thing to do.. but also fun and I would recommend it to anyone with a subject they want to revise.
Free trade is a step to show purchasers an ethical dimension and to introduce suppliers to a wider market. It is not subsidy and it is not damaging. As in the long term the suppliers are forced to face the world market. Hey, it is introducing what we all understand and take for granted but in a much nicer, easier, cleverer way.
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