Fairer Trade between the West and the Poorer Nations
Browse around your nearby branch of Tescos, and you’re looking at the benefits of globalisation. One can buy practically anything at super-low costs. It could be rice from Vietnam or tobacco from Columbia – it’s acquirable all year round. This is by far the best time in the history of humanity to be a consumer in the west. This has come about by intricate stock control and logistics, large scale production, strong competitive forces, and perhaps most importantly, the fact that most manufactured goods are located, and frequently manufactured, in the poorest nations.
That last reason is quite significant, and very contentious. While shoppers are enjoying clothing, food, drink and other items produced from poorer nations at rock-bottom prices, workers and businesses in these producing countries are oftentimes cheated in the process, and have no true sustainable business model since they’re at the end of a very long string of middle-men who control what they make, how much, and how often. This extended string of middle-men all get their share too – so there’s not a great deal of cash for the actual manufacturer.
Nevertheless, there’s help for such impoverished labourers and companies. Fairtrade is a cause which seeks to empower these end-producing business organizations in the poorest countries of the planet. It attempts to banish the middlemen, and pay the end-producer a decent price for a product in a much more targeted way. You may have discovered Fairtrade items in your nearby supermarket. Sometimes they’re a bit more expensive, but by purchasing such ethical products, you will be happy to realise the manufacturer is operating in a sustainable business environment that doesn’t just pay them justly through much more direct revenue streams, but it also grants them to put this extra money into their business through higher profits, which actually makes a difference to these poorest areas of the planet.
