“Fair Trade is based on modes of production and marketing that put people and the planet before economic profit.”
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FAIR TRADE CHARTER
Throughout the world and for many centuries, people have developed economic and commercial relationships based on mutual benefit and solidarity. Fair Trade applies these ideas to the contemporary challenges of international trade in a globalized world.
The Fair Trade movement is made up of individuals, organizations and networks that share a common vision of a world in which justice, equality and sustainable development are at the heart of business structures and practices so that everyone, through their work, can maintain a decent and dignified lifestyle and realize their full human potential.
World Fair Trade Organization and Fair Trade International have initiated the process of drafting this Charter, based on consultations with other actors, with the objective of elaborating a common reference document for the global movement. Fair Trade. The Charter aims to help Fair Trade actors explain how their work is linked to shared values and a generic approach, and to those who work with Fair Trade. with Fair Trade, to recognize these values and approaches.
World trade has grown spectacularly in recent decades. This has contributed to economic growth in many countries, but the benefits have not been shared equally. The trade models promoted by global institutions and large corporations have failed to deliver on their promise to eliminate poverty and have caused unprecedented levels of inequality.
Markets are often dominated by a handful of international firms that have the power to set the terms of trade for their suppliers, forcing prices down, often to levels below full production costs. This leaves small producers/producers (in many cases the organizations are not small, but the producers/producers who work for them are) workers in a vulnerable situation in the face of exploitation, and in the need to fight to earn a living wage.