Making Trade Fair For Nearly 30 Years

April 15, 2002

Making trade fair is not just a campaign for Trade Aid; it is what we do. We ’ve been doing it for nearly thirty years - campaigning on the issues and working in partnership with grassroots co-operatives all over the world since 1973.

Fair trade is all about creating opportunities for greater self-determination. As Aotearoa’s only practising fair trading organisation, Trade Aid has built a wealth of knowledge and real world experience of not only the challenges, but also the rewards of trading fairly, ethically and sustainably. It requires us to make informed ethical choices about the products we purchase. Fair trade guarantees people are paid a fair price for their labour, don’t work in sweatshops, and determine their own future.

Whilst Trade Aid disagrees with some policy and practical elements of Oxfam’ s ‘make trade fair’ campaign, we believe that the greater common good is more important and worthy of our support.

As such, we call on all people’s organisations, educational institutions, businesses, local governments and individuals in this country who are concerned about the widening gap between rich and poor to find common ground, and work together to challenge and change the present free trade policy being pursued by this government.

That policy assumes the ‘trickle down’ approach reaches the poor when in fact years of experience has shown such trade liberalisation to have widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots. If free trade is so great, why are more people than ever still in desperate poverty?

If you want to make a world of difference, visit a Trade Aid store and support Oxfam’s ‘make trade fair’ campaign.

ENDS.

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