How to Improve Fair Trade: #0

Trade should be fair.  And as an advocate for fair trade amongst nations and people I must express concern about the current premises in the ‘fair trade’ movement.  The arguments in support of ‘fair trade’ are specious, favor special interests and hurt small businesses and low-income buyers.  On top of this, human nature is perceived to respond differently to incentives based on whether the person is acting as a buyer, producer or a worker.  These arguments must be reanalyzed because, in their current state, they are nothing but a mockery to fairness.

Over the coming week, I will take the 8 principles that Global Exchange lists to be the pillars of “fair trade” and raise some concerns on why I think they are inadequate in framing the discussion about fair trade.