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But, current
international trade rules are keeping millions of people in poverty.
20 million small coffee farmers struggle to cover their costs while
ensuring we all get our essential caffeine fix. While we pay £1.50
for a cup of coffee, the people who grow the coffee beans get less
than 5p. It doesn’t make sense.
Fairer trade
can help people get themselves out of poverty
Well managed
trade has the potential to help billions of poor people. Increasing
Africa, Latin America, East Asia and South Asia’s share of
world exports by just one per cent would lift 128 million people
out of poverty. It would make Africa $70billion better off. Helping
poor countries in this manner will also benefit us - as their markets
get richer we will have new people and places to trade with, our
economy will grow with theirs and we will have a fairer and safer
world.
However, double
standards, rigged rules and exploitation keep the benefits of trade
away from the poorest. Unfair barriers to trade cost developing
countries two dollars for every dollar they get paid.
Rigged rules
Goods like coffee
and chocolate are grown in the tropics but the countries that grow
them don’t see the benefits that come from turning raw commodities
into the final product. Processing cocoa into a chocolate bar or
coffee beans into instant coffee only happens in rich countries
protected by rules and tariffs. Most of the money is made from this
processing stage.
Subsidies
Hector Chavez,
a Mexican corn farmer, struggles to sell his crops: "You want
to know why I can’t compete with American farmers? It’s
because the market is not fair. We are poor, they are rich –
but they get subsidies and we get nothing." Subsidies paid
to farmers in the United States are 50 times the income of poor
country farmers.
Rich countries
spend over $1billion a day on agricultural subsidies which means
that poor countries’ farmers are competing with products which
are sold at less than the cost of production.
Commodity
prices
Coffee prices
have fallen by 70 per cent since 1997, forcing thousands of coffee
farmers into poverty. Shoppers certainly haven’t seen a similar
cut in the price of coffee on supermarket shelves.
The same situation
applies to cocoa, tea, corn and rice where wildly fluctuating market
prices mean farmers in poor countries have no security. Many people
are proud of their skills and their produce, yet they face humiliation
and prices less than the price of production.
Who makes
the rules?
This situation
is maintained by man-made rules that favour the rich and powerful
over the poor. If the right choices are made then the rules can
be changed.
International
trade rules are agreed between countries at meetings of the World
Trade Organisation (WTO). Every country that is a member of the
WTO is entitled to be represented and is governed by international
trade rules.
The US has
250 permanent representatives at the WTO while Bangladesh has only
one. Many countries cannot afford to have any representatives.
Changing
the rules
All countries
can influence what happens at the WTO but rich and powerful countries
have much more influence and responsibility.
Everyone,
including you, can make a difference. The Trade Justice Movement
is a coalition of organisations working together to make trade work
for poor people by putting pressure on MPs, MEPs, the UK Government
and other international bodies. Adding your voice will make a difference.
A fair start?
Fairtrade
food, drinks, clothing and gifts are already available. Fairtrade
marked products mean producers, growers and workers get fair prices,
decent working conditions and good terms of trade. Paying a premium
above market prices means communities can build schools, wells and
improve the life of the community.
The Fairtrade
Mark appears on more than 80 different products including coffee,
tea, bananas, mangoes, cocoa, chocolate, biscuits, wine and fruit
juice. It guarantees the people who produce what you buy get a fair
deal.
Leicester is
Britain’s second Fairtrade city, promoting Fairtrade through
local businesses, shops, restaurants and Leicester City Council.
What
can I do?
In Leicester,
make a difference.
- Buy Fairtrade
products including coffee, chocolate, bananas, tea, snacks, biscuits,
honey and sugar. Look for the Fairtrade mark in supermarkets,
ask local shops to stock Fairtrade and visit Leicester’s
Fairtrade shop, Just, on Bishop Street.
- Encourage
friends and colleagues to buy Fairtrade products for home and
work from www.justfairtrade.com,
www.fairtrade.org.uk
- Support the
Trade Justice Movement by contacting Oxfam,
Christian
Aid, CAFOD,
Friends
of the Earth and SPEAK.
- Put pressure
on the governments, corporations and the World Trade Organisation
to improve the trade rules for developing countries.
- Come to
some of the Globeshare events listed on this web site and make
your voice heard.
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