Fair trade organizations push for trade rules, labor standards for small farmers

KEVIN HAMM
Special to The Leader

Dan Wills, who runs a business roasting and distributing coffee beans to a number of cafes throughout Chautauqua and surrounding counties, said he is skeptical of the fair trade movement and the many organizations that promote fair trade regulations.

"I figure even though with these non-profits, someone involved has got to be getting rich," Wills said.

Fair trade came about in response to the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), an international organization formed in Geneva, Switzerland in 1995 to monitor global trade. The WTO agreements, which 151 nations have signed according to WTO.int, include trade tariffs that determine market access relative to the size of each country's economy.

"Fair trade ensures a living wage for farmers where they have not been receiving them before," said Jennifer Mosher, head of the local chapter of Amnesty International.

Activists such as those at Globalexchange.org argue that the trade agreements and regulations implemented by the WTO are designed to promote economic protectionism and allow big corporations to extort small world countries.

Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO) is an umbrella organization of labeling initiatives that give consumer products the "Fairtrade Certification Mark," which ensures to consumers that the product was made and distributed in compliance with the trade rules and labor standards outlined by FLO.

The fair trade standards found at Fairtrade.net include a long list of specific qualifications that products have to meet before receiving the fair trade mark. The FLO prohibits forced labor and the use of certain harmful agrochemicals. It also requires companies to allow workers unionization and collective bargaining rights and requires that workers gets paid a salary that meets or exceeds the regional average.

Donn Smeragliuolo, who runs Intermezzo Cafe in downtown Fredonia, said he does not carry fair trade coffee because it is too expensive. Starbucks carries some fair trade coffees, however the Signature Cafes carry none.

According to an Oct. 2 article from The New York Times, consumers spent $2.2 billion on fair trade products in 2006, a 42 percent increase from the previous year. Only 3.3 percent of the coffee bought and sold in the U.S. in 2006 was fair trade, but that was an 800 percent increase from 2001, according to the FLO.

The mission statement on the Web site for Cafe Campesino, a Georgia-based company that distributes and sells only fair trade coffee, says "In every cup of Cafe Campesino fair trade coffee, you'll discover a unique way of life and an enriched community with clean water, a delectable bean that was shade grown under a tropical canopy, and finally you, a fulfilled consumer, who enjoys the fair trade taste that makes the world a better place."

Wills said that he has three fair trade coffees in his inventory, but that he is skeptical of what the real impact of it is.

"I went to Costa Rica and saw the farmers that actually harvest and pick the coffee beans and I was jealous of them. They didn't seem to be hurting to bad," Wills said. "I think fair trade standards have a lot of important aspects, but it gets overplayed."

The fair trade certification has been around since the 1980s, and fair trade products are reported by the Fairtrade Labeling Organization (FLO) to be produced and traded in more than 58 developing countries. Aside from coffee, products that commonly receive fair trade certification are bananas, honey, oranges, cotton, cocoa, fruits and vegetables, sugar, tea and wine.

Peter McCord, who teaches history at Fredonia, said that the point of fair trade standards is to get more money in the hands of the farmers who harvest and pick the coffee rather than the corporate giants that market and distribute it. "There is always potential for abuse in the system," McCord said.