Oxfam advisors trade secret
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Oxfams policy advisor on Latin America and the Caribbean, Constantino Casabuenas, used to think the fair trade movement was a useless waste of time. No longer.
Casabuenas told a meeting in London last week that he had gradually realised the real benefits of fair trade: Coffee producers affect their own environment, speak with their own voice, and have managed to get international solidarity. At international trade meetings, the fair trade cooperatives are talking for themselves, and thats fantastic. The meeting was held at the Oxfam-backed Progreso Café in Londons Covent Garden, and Casabuenas pointed out that the Progreso chain of Fairtrade cafes was setting a trend: The benefits go all the way back to the producers. Producers are beginning to be global actors in development. Earlier, Alex Singleton of the London-based Globalization Institute, in a debate to launch a new book, Fair Trade: Market-driven ethical consumption*, argued that fair trade was irrelevant in tackling poverty. He dismissed environmental activist George Monbiots suggestion that the World Trade Organization should become a fair trade body as Sovietisation that would not increase prosperity. He also pointed to a conflict between advocates arguing that fair trade would benefit producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America and those who wanted to back local producers in Western countries rather than encouraging imports of food and drink that clocked up tens of thousands air miles. Defending fair trade, Prof Geoff Moore of Durham University said the concept was exerting a major impact on corporate social responsibility and ethical consumerism. In addition, fair trade was helping raise the earnings of marginalised producers and break the monopoly of buyers in developing countries.
* By Alex Nicholls and Charlotte Opal, SAGE Publications Fairtrade Foundation Oxfam UK Globalization Institute |
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