“Trade is neither inherently good nor bad. But how it is conducted is a matter of great concern-and an unprecedented opportunity. Trade can either contribute to the process of sustainable development or undermine it. Given the rapidly accelerating destruction of the earth’s natural resource base, there is no question what the choice must be.” -Hilary French, author of Costly Tradeoffs: Reconciling Trade and the Environment
One of the most common confusions the Fair Trade movement has to contend with is that of Free Trade. In essence, Free Trade sounds great (hey, it’s free!). Not surprisingly, the US tends to use its power to bully poor countries into joining Free Trade agreements which are far from fair and balanced.
Free trade is based on the conventional economic idea that “international trade without the interference of tariffs, subsidies, price controls and pork-barrel politics is by far the most efficient way of matching global supply to demand while making all the participants more prosperous.” In theory this is a wonderful concept, however the gap from theory to reality is quite broad. George W. Bush made the proclamation shortly after securing the presidency for the first time that “open trade is not just an economic opportunity, it is a moral imperative.” It is not surprising then, that the current white house has been eager to fast track all free trade agreements during it’s remaining time, after all, W. is simply following his moral imperative, right? However, free trade initiatives are not a partisan issue, they have been embraced by both sides to appease large corporate benefactors, at expense of US jobs and workers overseas.
Theorist’s claim that removing all barrier’s and tariffs to trade will “be beneficial for workers, whose wages and benefits can rise as foreign markets expand for their goods.” However, when free trade practices are implemented what often follows is the opposite of this prediciton. Large corporation push out smaller businesses, US jobs are lost to overseas production where labor and safety laws are non-existent or not well enforced (879,280 U.S. jobs moved overseas after NAFTA), money is drained from the poorer countries as corporations fail to reinvest locally and all but forced servitude is common and even children are forced into hard labor conditions to survive. This has only furthered the gap between the rich and poor as “the richest 20% of the world’s population has 60 times the income of the poorest 20%.” Our moral imperative should not be to the profits earned but rather to the people. We have found it necessary in the US to outlaw child labor, require safe working conditions, and set a minimum wage. Why then do we take advantage of the lack of these laws in other countries to produce cheap goods? We have placed a value on human life and a standard treatment as such, now we must extend that to people other than US citizens and stop conflating profits with human rights.
At its core remembering the value of the people is the ultimate goal of Fair Trade. It is not, as some propose, simply an attempt to set a price floor which will destroy the natural flow of supply and demand. Rather it is placing the value of human life and labor above the value (but not at the expense of) profit. We have found cause to implement this within our borders and there is no true reason, moral or otherwise, to make this an exclusive arrangement.
Similarly a new economic theory has been proposed by Frank Rotering, which he terms Human Economics. “The objective of human economics is to formulate economic concepts and analytical tools that permit the maximization of human well-being subject to ecological constraints.” There is extreme poverty, death and suffering in today’s world, to the extent which we must re-evaluate our current policies and approach, because as dominant countries we are frequently the cause to, and continuation of, these problems.
Fair Trade is not perfect, there are legitimate criticisms and challenges it faces, nor should it be the ultimate solution. Rather Fair Trade is a necessary step towards improvement as it helps establish a new basic economic imperative, the realization that trade is fundamentally a human interaction. 
If we ever cease taking these steps toward something better it will not be the Fair Trade movement that fails but rather us that has failed ourselves.
