Fair Trade
By Choi Tae-hwan
Have you ever heard of the terms ``fair trade" and ``ethical consumption?" When you drink coffee, have you ever thought of where it was made and how it was made? How about the ball you are playing soccer with? How was it made or produced?
Every day we are likely to buy and consume things in and around our daily life. It's true that most of the goods we consume are produced by poor people who live in underdeveloped countries, which means, in a sense, we're closely connected to a great many people globally through our consumption. We're supposed to hold different standards for buying goods such as cheaply produced goods or top brands.
But recently certain buyers, so-called ``ethical consumers," think about goods from a societal viewpoint such as ``human rights'' or ``the environment'' as being important standards for buying and consuming goods. They pay close attention to labor exploitation and environmental damage that occur as a result of producing the goods, and they regard their purchases as a kind of economic behavior conducive to an eco-friendly future society based on fairness and the justification of consumption.
The term ``fair trade,'' which originated in Europe during the 1950s for the sole purpose of overcoming world poverty, is an organized social movement as a market-based model of international trade that promotes the payment of fair prices, as well as social and environmental standards.
This campaign is growing in popularity across the globe as an ideal means to effectively deal with the side effects of international free trade during a ten year period, with a target goal of 2,000 types of goods being fairly traded, compared with only 150 goods during the year 2000 alone. This movement is thought to encourage consumers to pay close attention to not only fair prices and quality of products but also to the ethical purchase of bananas, chocolate, coffee, flowers, clothes, shoes, furniture, soccer balls, and so on.
What is the motivation behind fair trade? It is suggested that the movement is aimed at deliberately paying a fair price to workers and farmers who produce the goods for both their work and time by means of paying a ``minimum" price to producers regardless of the going price on the world market. For example, a fair price for Arabian coffee would be $1.21, in comparison to the 70 cents per 500 gm it fetches on the world market. This would make it possible for marginalized producers and workers to move from a position of vulnerability to economic independence and self-sufficiency.
What about in Korea? In Korea, the fair trade campaign has been spreading across the country as a representative practice behavior for ethical consumption ever since the YMCA, the Beautiful Foundation, the Women's Environment Association, and FAIRTRADE KOREA all joined this movement for the purpose of drinking coffee and donating clothes. A recent survey found that nearly 70 percent of respondents were willing to buy goods of fair trades, but only three percent of those responding positively had ever obtained information about what the practice of fair trade really means.
The United States is known to have had a long history of fair trade for fifty years, unlike the two- or three-year period in Korea. The main priority for Korea is to inform its citizens of what fair trade is and what is necessary to do in order to extend the quantity and improve the quality of products, so conscious consumers are more apt to search for and buy fair-trade-based goods.
Now is the time when we should seriously question and consider the unknown truth behind the making of brand name goods ― for example, where was the product produced? Who actually made the product? Were the workers paid fairly? Were trees destroyed in the process of making the furniture, and if so, are the trees in danger of becoming extinct?
I think the TV program ``ethical consumption," which aired a few months ago, was so provocative that it greatly enhanced Koreans' awareness of the meaning of the terms fair trade and ethical consumption. Personally, I make it a rule when buying goods to take a few seconds first to examine the producer, price, and consumer of the goods I'm going to buy.
All Koreans! Before buying a product, take a few seconds and ask yourself questions such as, ``Is this a fair price?" ``Do I consider myself a bad or ethical buyer and consumer?" Bear in mind that by doing so you may be instrumental in helping the needy around the world climb out of poverty. Let's do our best to be ``ethical consumers" through ``fair trade!"
The writer is an English teacher at Jeonnam Middle School in Gwangju. He can be reached at cth0707@hanmail.net.