Fair trade (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fair trade has a variety of meanings:

• Fair trade (two words) is used to refer to the movement that promotes international labour, environmental, economic and social standards for the production of labelled and unlabelled goods ranging from handcrafts to agricultural commodities. The term is also used to refer to the work of Alternative Trade Organizations (ATOs), Fair Trade federations and networks such as IFAT, FLO, NEWS, EFTA etc.

• Fairtrade (one word) is used to describe the certification and labeling system overseen by FLO International, a standard-setting body, and FLO-CERT, a certification body. The system involves independent auditing of producers and traders to ensure the agreed labour and environmental standards are met.

• "Fair trade" is a term used by the trade justice movement to contrast with 'unfair' international trade practices.

• "Fair trade" is more rarely used to refer to corporate governance and reforming anti-competitive trade principles (such as antitrust issues). Sometimes (in Korea and Japan, for example) these issues are pursued by organisations that are called Fair Trade/Trading Commissions.

• "Fair trade" can also refer to consumer rights and fair contracts. Office of Fair Trading is a common name for an organisation that aims to protect these interests and/or to facilitate a fair and ethical marketplace. Governmental and non-governmental organisations with this name exist, for example, in the United Kingdom and Australia.

• In the history of the law of the United States, the term "fair trade" refers to a type of state law legalizing resale price maintenance, which first appeared during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

• "Fair Trade" is an episode of the sci-fi television series Star Trek: Voyager