Is fair trade fair?

Abstract

The global market is incredibly interconnected and interdependent. However, massive inequalities in wealth and poverty exist throughout, with the richest 1% gaining 82% of the wealth produced last year, while the poorest 3.7 billion people saw absolutely no wealth increase (Ratcliff, 2018). Fair Trade attempts to address these global issues by increasing demand for “ethical” goods. Fair Trade has become a global endeavour involving over 70 countries. Allowing 1.66 million farmers with global sales to reach 7.88 Billion Euros and in 2015, 138 million Euros were paid in social premiums (an additional payment to producers to use for social goals) (Fairtrade. 2018). Despite this, the FLO admits its payments do not meet a living wage (Fairtrade Canada, 2018). This begs the question: is it possible to create a fairer and more just global system through fair trade certification? Or, is Fair Trade fair? Firstly, what is justice or fairness? Justice is born from relations of communities, concerned with giving people what they deserve (Amartya Sen 2009), based on a platform of fairness. Fairness is a necessary component of justice, it’s an equitable structure which justice can be measured (Rawls, 1990; Isbister, 2001). In moral obligation groups, there are principals in attaining justice, equality, freedom and efficiency (Isbister, 2001). Justice is not merely contractual (Wein, 1987), but requires a structure of fairness to measure justice. Fairness requires cooperation and trust. The market derives from social life (Polanyi, 1944, Wood, 1999). Today’s global market is defined by economic globalization and neoliberalism, which perceives the market as an amoral ideological mechanism. Although people are not amoral, the market being from social life, has normative repercussions. Fair Trade exists within market forces, which attempts to address global inequalities. However, fair Trade does not adequately provide a structure of fairness, therefore cannot provide justice.