Trade justice - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Trade justice is a campaign by non-governmental

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

organisations lobbying for changes to the rules and practices of world trade

World Trade

World Trade can refer to:*International trade*International finance*World Trade Organization*World Trade, a progressive rock band*World Trade Center...

so that poor people and the environment benefit. These organizations include consumer groups, trade unions, faith groups, aid agencies and environmental groups.

The organizations campaigning for trade justice posit this concept in opposition to free trade

Free trade

Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

, the advocates of which often also claim pro-poor outcomes. Trade justice advocates start from a premise that appropriate intervention in markets is necessary as opposed to no or little government role in free market

Free market

A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

s.

The Trade Justice Movement

Trade Justice Movement

The Trade Justice Movement is a British coalition, founded in 2000, of more than 80 organizations campaigning for trade justice.The coalition has a particular focus on UK and EU trade policies...

in the UK was the first formal coalition of groups to use the term "trade justice" (partly because in the UK, "fair trade

Fair trade

Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards...

" usually refers to Fairtrade certification and is a consumer model of change rather than an overtly political movement calling for government action). The term trade justice has been widely adopted internationally by campaign groups, for example by the over 100 national platforms of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty

Global Call to Action Against Poverty

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a growing worldwide alliance consisting of national coalitions of campaigns to end poverty....

where it is one of the four main demands. In many countries "fair trade

Fair trade

" is used as well as or instead of "trade justice".

The global institutions that are most often targeted in trade justice campaigns against the alleged injustices of the current international trade system are the World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

(WTO), the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

(IMF) and the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

(WB). Campaigners also lobby their own governments with the intention of creating pressure on them to prioritise poverty reduction when making international trade rules. In trading blocs such as the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

(EU), the campaigns seek to influence policy across a number of member state governments.

"Trade Justice" and "Fair Trade" were originally used by those supporting social justice

Social justice

Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...

and the alleviation of the intense poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

found in many developing nations. They contrasted "fair trade" with 'unfair' international trade

International trade

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...

practices. It is associated particularly with labour unions and environmentalists

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

, in their criticism of disparities between the protections for capital

Capital (economics)

In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...

versus those for labour and the environment. The use of the term has expanded beyond campaigns to reform current trading practices, and major institutions such as the World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

which embody them. Now it has become a movement to allow consumers to choose not to participate in these practices. Fairtrade labelling

Fairtrade labelling

Fairtrade certification is a product certification system designed to allow people to identify products that meet agreed environmental, labour and developmental standards. Overseen by a standard-setting body, Fairtrade International , and a certification body, FLO-CERT, the system involves...

or "Fairtrade certification" allows consumer

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

s to identify goods especially commodities such as coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

, that meet certain agreed standards of fairness.

Advocates of trade justice argue that growing inequity and serious gaps in social justice

Social justice

, and the global export of terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, are symptoms of an economic system that permits harms to be exported to other countries, while importing their goods. They point to extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

, deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

, social unrest, as consequences of globalisation, and in particular of an "unfair" globalisation. In the past, the responses sought by critics of the international trade system included various penalties on "unfair" goods. This argument generally made little headway against the long-term movement towards free trade

Free trade

; imposition of penalties for "dumping

Dumping (pricing policy)

In economics, "dumping" is any kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in its home market, or in quantities that cannot be explained through normal market...

" was sometimes motivated by domestic political reasons such as the United States imposition of steel tariffs in 2001).

Today, the trade justice movement concentrates more on the abolition of agricultural subsidies

Agricultural policy

Agricultural policy describes a set of laws relating to domestic agriculture and imports of foreign agricultural products. Governments usually implement agricultural policies with the goal of achieving a specific outcome in the domestic agricultural product markets...

and dumping, and to a much lesser extent on offsetting penalties on "unfair" goods. Indeed, although there are many who are still critical of free trade in general, there is a trend towards campaigning against what is seen as hypocrisy

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....

by developed countries in using protectionism

Protectionism

Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...

against the poorest countries, especially in agricultural products, while requiring them to leave their own producers without protection.

Academics such as Thomas Alured Faunce

Thomas Alured Faunce

Thomas Alured Faunce is an Associate Professor jointly in the College of Law and Medical School at the Australian National University at Canberra Australia...

argue that the insertion of a constructive ambiguity

Constructive ambiguity

Constructive ambiguity is a term generally credited to Henry Kissinger, said to be the foremost exponent of the negotiating tactic it designates. It refers to the deliberate use of ambiguous language on a sensitive issue in order to advance some political purpose. Constructive ambiguity is often...

such as valuing innovation

Innovation

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...

in bilateral trade agreements (and then according normative

Normative

Normative has specialized contextual meanings in several academic disciplines. Generically, it means relating to an ideal standard or model. In practice, it has strong connotations of relating to a typical standard or model ....

and ongoing lobbying

Lobbying

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

power to such textual negotiating truces by formally linking them with non-violation nullification of benefits

Non-violation nullification of benefits

Non-violation nullification of benefits claims are a species of Dispute settlement in the World Trade Organization arising under World Trade Organisation multilateral and bilateral trade agreements. NVNB claims are controversial in that they are widely perceived to promote the social vices of...

provisions) (quite apart from the role of such trade agreements in increasing intellectual property rights (or intellectual monopoly privileges) outside of multilateral negotiations) may undermine democratic sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

with regard to construction of domestic policy, particularly in areas such as the environment and public health. This view is strenuously contested by trade law officials and many domestic policy makers.

The mostly widely referred to demand of trade justice campaigners is access to the markets of developed countries or rich countries. When developing countries export to developed country markets, they often face tariff barriers that can be as much as four times higher than those encountered by developed countries. Poverty claims that those barriers cost poor countries $100 billion a year - twice as much as they receive in aid.

Most trade justice campaigners focus in some way on the agricultural subsidies of rich countries that make it difficult for farmers in poor countries to compete. For example they argue that the European Union's agricultural export subsidies encourage overproduction of goods such as tomatoes or sugar, which are then sold cheaply or 'dumped' in poor countries. Local farmers cannot sell their goods as cheaply and go out of business.

The campaign points to the treatment of agriculture at the WTO, which has institutionalised these injustices. In the few instances where developing countries have used the complex and expensive WTO process to declare subsidies (eg..US cotton subsidies) excessive, developed countries ignore these rulings, which the WTO itself does not enforce. Recently rich countries have begun to talk about cutting export subsidies, but they often demand greater access to poor country markets in return.

The term "trade justice" emphasises that even if the playing field were level, instead of tilted against developing countries, the poorest developing countries in particular would still struggle to gain from trade if forced to trade under free trade

Free trade

terms. This is because of their overwhelming lack of competitiveness - poor countries do not have huge stocks of exports waiting to be shipped to rich countries, instead most small farmers want to be able to sell their goods locally.

See also

Trade Justice Advocacy

Articles and Papers