Ethically Traded Goods

 

What is Ethical Trade?

Ethical Trade is an important and effective means of bringing benefits to workers in the south/developing world so they can invest more in their own communities. It is having a real effect on large companies in the United Kingdom, encouraging them to look at all their trading activities.

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) consists of companies, NGOs and trade Unions "working to improve conditions of employment in the supply chains of goods sold in High street shops in Britain. It exists mainly as a result of customer pressure who wanted retailers to act responsibly to farms at farm or factory level.

The ETI code is based on international standards and, briefly, includes:

• no forced work or slave labour
• no child labour to be used
• no excessive working hours
• no harsh or inhumane treatment
• no discrimination
• freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively
• safe and hygienic working conditions
• living wages to be paid

Fair Trade has a different focus. It is an alternative approach to conventional international trade, being a partnership which aims to assist development in under developed or poverty stricken countries. The aim is to make development more sustainable for excluded and disadvantaged producers in the "South - Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean. These producers have no access to mainstream markets, so Fair Trade seeks to change the unfair structures of world trade to help create a fairer society. Poverty alleviation is the main objective.

These Countries need the opportunity to trade and receive fair payment for their work, not to be ripped off or rely on declining charity handouts for their future development and children's education.

The level of the problem is huge with 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty. At the UN Millennium Summit last year 147 world leaders committed to halving extreme poverty by 2015. The latest study by the UN shows that this is unlikely to happen. A World Bank study shows that aid to Africa from OECD countries fell from $32 a head in 1990 to $19 a head in 1998.

They need fair prices for goods to make up this shortfall. Starbucks is just one of the most recent companies to encourage fair trade supplies with 4,000 shops now selling fair trade coffee.