Limitations of fair trade

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   I'm currently working for Oxfam in Russia on a project that is trying to move fair trade up a gear.  Most fair trade to date still deals with basic
commodities – foods, cotton, etc – rather than the intellectual
property development now at the heart of Western economies. The next
step surely is to move fair trade, and production in developing and
transitional economies, right into high added value processes,
knowledge-based industries, and intellectual property development.
However, this is surrounded by ethical arguments. Fair trade is sometimes crticised because it often involves transporting things half-way round the world: good
for income distribution, bad for the environment. The new model I'm working on with Oxfam might be
criticised on these grounds, too, and also because in a world where the
environmental imperative is to consume less it is perhaps
harder to defend a fair trade model based on intellectual property
development rather than meeting basic neeeds like food and clothing.
These arguments are part of a more fundamental conflict between the
aims of reducing inequality and reducing emissions, if the former means
developing and transitional economies becoming more like 'the West'.
I wonder if readers of this forum would like to feed back views on these issues? - for more details of my work for Oxfam please read my blog from Russia here.

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Geof Cox Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 17-Jul-2009 Location: UK Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Quote Reply Topic: Limitations of fair trade Posted: 06-Mar-2010 at 23:37
	I'm currently working for Oxfam in Russia on a project that is trying to move fair trade up a gear. Most fair trade to date still deals with basic commodities – foods, cotton, etc – rather than the intellectual property development now at the heart of Western economies. The next step surely is to move fair trade, and production in developing and transitional economies, right into high added value processes, knowledge-based industries, and intellectual property development. However, this is surrounded by ethical arguments. Fair trade is sometimes crticised because it often involves transporting things half-way round the world: good for income distribution, bad for the environment. The new model I'm working on with Oxfam might be criticised on these grounds, too, and also because in a world where the environmental imperative is to consume less it is perhaps harder to defend a fair trade model based on intellectual property development rather than meeting basic neeeds like food and clothing. These arguments are part of a more fundamental conflict between the aims of reducing inequality and reducing emissions, if the former means developing and transitional economies becoming more like 'the West'. I wonder if readers of this forum would like to feed back views on these issues? - for more details of my work for Oxfam please read my blog from Russia here.
	www.geofcox.info


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