The best argument for fair trade is that it counters “free trade”. It is the concerns over free trade issues that impassions a movement towards 
a more just and “fair trade”. Because trade agreements determine whether poor communities in the global South benefit or suffer from international trade, it takes all of the conscientious consumers in the world to bring about change.
According to the United Nations Council on Trade and Development, current trade rules have contributed to an increase in poverty and unemployment in developing countries and have widened income gaps between rich and poor both within and between countries. While poor countries have had to lower trade barriers for transnational corporations, the rich countries have not taken comparable actions to allow exports from these countries into their markets. The poor, therefore, suffer from “free” but unfair trade. We, consumers in the economically strong nations of our world, can initiate change into a “fair trade” market that benefits more than the world’s strong economies.
Small and medium-sized companies who have made fair trade a model for alternative, international trade and realized the power the fair trade movement has by capturing more and more of the mainstream buyer market here in the U.S. are not alone.
Now companies such as McDonald’s, who have debuted a fair trade line of coffees in the NE region of North America; Nestle, who has invested in a brand of fair trade chocolates, are taking advantage of fair trade. How is the definition of fair trade kept as a progressive and sincere movement when transnational companies get involved?
Many organizations both international and national, help companies certify agriculture products and handicrafts as authentic. However, it takes more than a fair price paid to a group of small farmers or fair wage for handicrafts produced in order for a company to be fair. It is more than the principles listed by certification organizations that make trade more than the same “free” trade system. Fair trade is a continuous struggle and forthright commitment to finding the richness in cultural and ethical exchange, not the profits generated or number of products certified.
For many producers and artisans working in the fair trade market, it means a livelihood and opportunity for a better life, but it should also mean a trend towards valuing the intangible gifts of language, culture and diversity that make our world great. It is up to each consumer who participates, to make the informed decisions on which companies have a true, long-term commitment to these intangibles, to determine where and what our “fair trade” system brings into our lives. We all must choose wisely, for free- marketing of fair trade could mean the beginning or the end of meaningful fair trade for everyone.
of Nepalese coffees in the world are Japanese people.
