by Richard Smith

Created on: August 10, 2008

There has been a sudden growth in the demand for Fairtrade products in the UK, helped by the high profile support of performers like Chris Martin of Coldplay, with a fifth of all bananas and coffee sold being produced by Fairtrade growers, the Fairtrade share of the UK markets has doubled since 2005.

So what is Fairtrade and what are its aims?

Well the aims are to establish prices for goods from small producers in developing countries and long term contracts that offer a sustainable living wage. This will mean that workers will have more control over their lives, better living conditions and more security. In addition workers can be better trained. It will also serve to reduce the dependency culture in some third world countries and ultimately boost their GDP.

Opening up trade opportunities has further benefits, it will help reduce child poverty, reducing the likelihood that children will have to work in sweatshops, that they will be forced into the work place rather than completing an education as the additional incomes for their parents will mean that they can afford to send them to school.

The fundamental way that these aims can be achieved is by ensuring that the whole trade process is open and can b seen to be just. This means that trade tariffs and subsidies to particular industries need to be removed. This is far easier said than done as many of those agricultural industries that receive state subsidies or benefit from import tariffs to their home markets have strong lobbying power both in America and Europe.

The Fairtrade Foundation lobbies on behalf of producers and also seeks to raise public awareness and create a demand for the products. In addition they provide a certification and labelling system to ensure that the customer can understand the origin of the product. The Foundation was formed by a number of Christian aid and charitable concerns as well as CAFOD.

Are we talking about Free Trade?

The concept of "free trade" conjures up ideas of equality and fairness for all manufacturers and producers and it means that there are no restrictions on trade, there are no restrictions on who can import gods from one country to another and that no subsidies exist to support either the exporter or the home market producer. However free trade can come with a price and this is linked to the concept of comparative advantage. Generally a rich nation will have an advantage over the manufacture of those high value goods; this is due to technological advances, an educated

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