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It is Fair Trade Week in Europe and hundreds of thousands of
customers are committed to buying products that are produced justly,
without exploitation and under proper working conditions. As one
concerned parent said to me recently, “The one thing I don’t
want my child wearing is clothes made with child labor in a filthy
sweatshop.” Recently, a well-known international brand of clothing
was discovered to have its expensive clothes made in a sweatshop in
India. The children did the embroidery because they had nimble
fingers. Sales of its products dropped like a stone and so too its
share price. It had failed to carefully monitor the factories where
it had outsourced its manufacturing.
Child labor is rampant across Asia and that is
why trade criteria are so important. They protect vulnerable women
and children from exploitation and abuse. This being International
Women’s Day, we start a month-long information campaign that will
highlight women’s rights, uncover the exploitation and expose what
good things are being done to enhance their dignity and promote
their rights. Fair trade is one way to do it.
Some years ago, the world-famous brand of sports
shoes made in an export zone in Cavite was hit with a boycott of its
products when the campaigners against the exploitation of poor young
female workers in the developing nations and youth across America
and Canada boycotted the brand. It took years for the brand to
recover.
The criteria of fair trade are the guidelines
for ethical, just and nonexploitative trading. In the Preda
Foundation (People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance
Foundation) a fair trade department supports dozens of small
producer groups making crafts and fine bamboo furniture of all
kinds. It supports interest-free loans, skilled training,
educational assistance and access to markets abroad.
Thousand of farmers also benefit from the Preda
fair trade dried mango and mango puree that Preda promotes. By
paying the farmers higher prices for all kinds of mangoes for drying
and processing a price fixing cartel is kept far away. Preda
organized the first National Organic Mango Conference last January
at its conference center in Olongapo City. The demand for
internationally certified organic produce is growing. One German
importer told the conference that he could buy 300 percent more
dried mangoes if they were certified organic and were fair trade
mangoes.
According to the International Federation of
Fair Trade (IFAT), fair trade is a trading partnership based on
dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in
international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by
offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of,
marginalized producers and workers—especially in the South. Fair
trade organizations (backed by consumers) are actively engaged in
supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for
changes in rules and practices of conventional international trade.
From modest beginnings, fair trade has developed
into a worldwide movement, guaranteeing decent living and working
conditions for over one million small-scale and marginalized
producers and poor workers in developing countries. In Europe, fair
trade organizations have pioneered responsible business practices
and encouraged consumers to take the social, economic and
environmental conditions of their purchasing into account.
So from this we can see that there is huge
potential for products that meet the criteria. Recycled products
using recycled materials made under the fair trade criteria have
been a boon for the bag sewers of the Preda bag-making project. The
discarded drink pouches are an environmental hazard. Being made of
aluminum foil, they take years to disintegrate. But Preda project
turns them into fashionable and much-sought-after products from
high-quality backpacks, fashion purses and wallets to shopping bags.
The drinking pouches turned to useful and attractive products have
brought prosperity to 40 families who make them in their own homes
on sewing machines supplied by Preda and paid for by the sewers’
interest free. The pouch collectors gain also by collecting the
discarded bags and cleaning them for a fair price.
There is money for all in doing business through
fair trade. There is no need to exploit people by giving unjust
wages and bad conditions; a clean conscience is worth more than a
dirty bank account. Fair trade is all about doing the right thing
and giving every worker, especially women, a fair chance and a just
wage.
preda@info.com.ph; www.preda.org
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