Q&A: Global Exchange on Fair Trade

In most circumstances I prefer to buy locally made products. I appreciate some assurance that the goods I buy are made under fair labor restrictions, safety regulations, and have a smaller carbon footprint. But there are some items that I specifically look for on the global market. I drink tea from India, use Shea butter native to Africa and savor Belgian chocolate made from cocoa beans in Tanzania.

To enjoy these luxuries from around the world, I rely on the fair trade certification for the security it offers in protecting human rights, labor laws and respecting the environment. Fair trade is also a great way to access the market of handcrafted goods made globally that can help empower workers living in impoverished areas. To learn more about what fair trade really is, it’s benefits and specifically how it relates to the buy local mission, I contacted Tex Dworkin, from Global Exchange. Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Tex was kind enough to answer my questions and provide me with a plethora of resources to share with my readers to learn more about the benefits of fair trade and how to take advantage of them.

What is the mission of Global Exchange and how does it relate to fair trade?

Global Exchange is dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice issues around the world. We take a holistic approach to creating change and working for international human rights, and work within the understanding that in order to advance social, environmental and economic justice we must transform the global economy from profit-centered to people-centered and from currency to community.

Our Fair Trade Program has worked to promote Fair trade, end child and forced labor and trafficking in the cocoa industry, as well as educate and empower children and adults to advocate for and purchase Fair trade.  We support Fair Trade because it revolutionizes the global economy by setting minimum standards for economic, social, and environmental performance of companies.

What are the standards defined by fair trade?

The exact standards of Fair Trade that a company follows depend on the company’s Fair Trade certifier or membership organization though most share many standards, including safe working conditions, no abuse of child labor, fair pay and environmentally sustainable practices, to name a few.

Certifiable commodities (by independent, third party labeling organizations) such as coffee and cocoa have different standards than craft products, for ex. minimum floor price. Crafts are not currently certifiable under any labels, but all fair trade products follow guiding principles such as fair wages and healthy safe working conditions.

What is considered ‘fair trade’ is a question being debated by many in the movement today. Here’s a recent article worth reading to learn more about this issue.
How do fair trade principles benefit workers and the environment?

There are many worker benefits that result from following fair trade principles. Here are a few:

• By developing long term trading relationships, communities over time are able to depend on consistent income and put that income to good use. One artisan group I visited in Thailand, and then re-visited a few years later, went from living behind a train station in a makeshift dwelling to living in a new home they owned;
• By investing via paying a certain % before an order is placed, international buyers can contribute to the end of cycle of poverty many producers around the world find themselves in;
• By prohibiting the abuse of child labor in cocoa fields, there is more hope for children in farming communities who are able to receive an education instead of working in dangerous conditions.

What products are available through fair trade? 

There are lots of products available in the US market that meet basic Fair Trade criteria. Certain products are Fair Trade Certified, certain products are not. Fair Trade Certified products include cocoa, coffee, tea, honey, soccer balls, apparel, vanilla, flowers, and bananas. Fair Trade crafts are not currently Certified, so a great way to identify Fair Trade made craft products, since there is no label to seek out, is to support Fair Trade Federation members. The Fair Trade Federation is the trade association that strengthens and promotes North American organizations fully committed to fair trade. All business members strive to only source goods according to the Fair Trade Principles  and Code of Practice.

What certifications are the most significant to look for in a product claiming to be fair trade?

Fair Trade USA was the first third-party Fair Trade certification in the US. FTUSA standards were based on Fairtrade International (FLO) standards, (FLO is a global representative body of members committed to 100% Fair Trade), but recently Fair Trade USA split with FLO. A newer certification to enter the Fair Trade picture in the US is Fair For Life, a brand neutral third party certification program for social accountability and fair trade in agricultural, manufacturing and trading operations.

Do fair trade products costs significantly more to the consumer?

It depends what product you’re talking about; fair trade coffee for instance, is comparable in price to other gourmet coffees on the market, but if you compare fair trade coffee to other lower quality, mass produced coffees on the market, sure, you’ll pay more. You get what you pay for.

Other products, say fair trade craft products, you have to remember when determining price difference, to compare comparable products. If you compare a hand-woven sweater made of hand-spun yarn and natural dyes to a factory-made sweater pumped out of a sweatshop, the price will most likely vary greatly. But you’re talking about 2 entirely different products. Both sweaters, but still apples and oranges. The quality is different, the pay the producer received for making the product vastly different, the impact on the environment different. Apples and oranges.

The good news is, as economics 101 works, as demand increases, prices decrease. So as more fair trade products sell/demand increases, we can expect to see prices decrease.

What role does buying fair trade have in the buying local movement?

I addressed this topic in an article I wrote a while back called “BUY LOCAL VS. FAIR TRADE:
AN ETHICAL SHOPPER’S DILEMMA“. In it I wrote: ‘Buy Local’ and Fair Trade movements both have tremendous benefits. They support environmentally sustainable solutions, and layers of middlemen are left out of each economic model, helping to ensure that afair percentage of profits actually reach the producers. Fair Trade and locally made products are often handcrafted with care, resulting in a higher quality product than the mass-produced sweatshop products available in big box stores, and in both cases, the preservation of cultural heritage is a by-product of doing business.

One point from that I find particularly interesting: choosing Fair Trade products can actually help local merchants survive in a sluggish economy. Prices for cheap imports made in sweatshop factories outside of the US are usually so low that local merchants have difficulty competing on price. So during a time when consumers are looking to cut costs wherever possible, cheap knock offs made in sweatshops often outsell locally made products, even though the quality is drastically lower.

My advice? Buying local and fair trade are not mutually exclusive. They both have benefits. So go out and shop based on your values, based on what’s important to you, because how you spend your money, what you spend your money on makes a statement about how you want this world we live in to be. And remember that it’s not about buying more, but buying differently.

Can you provide some insight on the recent Fairtrade International Victoria’s Secret Labor scandal?

I’ve read a few news articles about this, but I haven’t investigated the issue thoroughly, so my knowledge of this case is limited. What I will say is this. Any company or corporation claiming to be unaware of unfair labor practices happening within the confines of its dealings does not fly in my book. Dealings includes what happens at companies you outsource work to! If claiming ignorance about what is happening in factories they outsource work to is an acceptable excuse for multinational corporations, how on earth can we hold corporations accountable for its activities? I believe wholeheartedly that it is the responsibility of every company/corporation to ensure that the practices of its sub-contractors are humane and fair. Claiming to not know about unfair practices of its sub-contractors is not an acceptable excuse. Ignorance is not bliss, and companies/corporations should not be allowed to outsource blame to its sub-contractor(s) to justify labor practices that are unfair, unsafe, unhealthy.

Here are some more resources to learn more:

Fair Trade FAQs (Global Exchange)
Identifying Fair Trade products (Fair Trade Resource Network)
About Fair Trade (Fair Trade Federation)
Fair Trade Principles 
Fair Trade Crafts
Fair Trade Commodities
Fair Trade Resource Network (FTRN) & Survivors Connect (SC) recently launched iSpotFairTrade, a web-based map you can use to identify where Fair Trade goods are bought and sold throughout the United States and Canada. iSpotFairTrade is crowd-sourced, so anyone can post information on the interactive maps about products associated with any of the widely accepted recognition/certification systems.

Special thanks to Tex from Global Exchange for his time and effort in sharing his knowledge and providing excellent resources!

Were you familiar with fair trade principles? Have you ever spotted the certification label on a product? Have you ever made a fair trade purchase? Will reading this information make you more likely to choose a fairly traded product?