Fair trade is in the news...on Public Radio anyway

Fair trade was noticeably abuzz in the news on public radio today in Chicago. This morning I heard a brief discussion in response to the decision made recently by two large chocolate companies, Cadbury and Mars, to go fair trade. Both companies have announced that they will include labor and environmental standards in their sourcing guidelines or establish fair trade criteria in their codes of conduct. The report also led to a discussion on the status of the fair trade movement worldwide. Although growing, as evidenced by these announcements, fair trade product purchases still represent a very small percentage of overall global trade or consumerism worldwide (perhaps .5% of food/product sales in the UK).

Then later, I was listening to one of my favorite public radio programs, WBEZ's Worldview. There was a good interview on the status of free trade vs. fair trade in the context of current debates about a free trade agreement with Colombia in Canada. There was discussion about a growing number of fair trade deals being negotiated in different countries. These generally include attention to labor and environmental standards and social improvements as a result of trade. The interview also discusses the human rights situation in Colombia, which is an important element of this debate given the startling number of trade unionists killed in Colombia in recent years.