Workshop on FairTrade and Migration Prevention SAMReN Conference, 1829 November 2005, Dhaka Banglade

1
Workshop on Fair-Trade and Migration
PreventionSAMReN Conference, 18-29 November
2005, Dhaka Bangladesh

• Talitha Schaerli, Switzerland

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Introduction
Structural frame conditions, especially the
world economic order, make a balance between the
North and the South impossible.1
World Economic Order
Fair Trade
SOUTH
NORTH
development cooperation
1 Message from the Swiss Federal Council,
21.2.1990, p.3
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Fair Trade is becoming a fact
Introduction
Introduction

• Fair Trade has increasingly become known as a way
  of creating better social and ecological
  conditions for producers in the South.
• Fair Trade may today be called a stable factor
  within conventional world trade even if the of
  Fair Trade is still tremendous small in
  comparison to the share of conventional fair
  trade.

One way, in order to change the world trade
system
Engage in fair trade activities!!!
4

Market shares of fair trade labelled products in
European Countries
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Agenda
Plan

• 1. Fair Trade
• Definition of Fair Trade
• Principles of Fair Trade
• Goals of Fair Trade
• Fair Trade vs Conventional Free Trade
• (2. Migration
• Definition of migration)
• 3. May Fair Trade Contribute to Reducing
  Migration Streams?
• 4. Case study Talithas collection/Kamay Krafts
• 5. Conclusions

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Definition of Fair Trade
1. Fair Trade

• Fair Trade is an alternative approach to
  conventional international trade. It is a trading
  partnership which aims for sustainable
  development of excluded and disadvantaged
  producers. It seeks to do this by providing
  better trading conditions, by awareness raising
  and by campaigning.

.by FINE, an informal umbrella group of the four
main Fair Trade networks, April 1999
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Fair Trade Principles
1. Fair Trade

• Long term, equal and direct trade relations
• Cost covering prices
• Good working conditions
• Ecological and social production
• Control and information

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The goals of Fair Trade
1. Fair Trade

• Improve the well being of producers
• Promote development opportunities for
  disadvantaged producers
• Raise awareness among consumers
• Set an example of partnership in trade
• Campaign for changes in the rules and practice of
  conventional international trade
• Protect human rights

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1. Fair Trade
Fair Trade vs. Conventional Free Trade

• Conventional Free Trade
• Multinational companies benefit from lower labour
  costs and looser environmental regulations in
  Third World countries.
•  
• Is not about helping small farmers gain self
  sufficiency
• Most of the price likely goes to exploitative
  middlemen.

• Fair Trade
• Guarantees producers a better price
• By direct trade links between producers and
  consumers, social justice is promoted in a manner
  that socially and economically empowers
• Is not charity it provides a market-based
  approach to increasing small farmers
  self-sufficiency

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How Fair Trade Works  
1. Fair Trade
Example Coffee

• Fair Trade Chain
• Small-scale producer
• gtgt co-op
• gtgt importer
• gtgt certification organization
• gtgt wholesaler/process
• gtgt consumer

• Conventional Trade Chain
• Small-scale producer gtgt trader gtgt processor
  gtgt exporter gtgt broker gtgt roaster gtgt
  distributor gtgt retailer gtgt consumer

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Migration
2. Migration

• Internal as well as international migration has
  been going on for a very long time.
• National governments over the whole world are
  confronted with the question of how to handle
  migration.
• Two poles can be seen
• E.g. Philippines, who more or less openly
  encourage their citizens to migrate,
• Immigration side in industrialised countries, who
  need to address the question of how many to
  accept into their realm and along which rules.

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Migration has different faces..
2. Migration

• and might therefore be categorized into
• internal/international,
• legal/illegal,
• temporary/permanent
• forced/voluntary migration

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Definition of migration
2. Migration

• Migration is the movement of a person
• or group of persons from one
• geographical unit to another across an
• administrative or political border,
• whishing to settle definitely or
• temporarily in place other than their
• place of origin (IOM 2003).

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World Bank on Fair Trade
3. May Fair Trade Help Reduce Migration Streams?

• The world bank has taken a positive stance on
  Fair Trade. According to the Bank comments in
  their 2003 study of sustainable coffee markets,
  sustainable coffees (both fair trade and
  organic)
• can provide such benefits as improved natural
  resource management fewer agrochemicals used in
  production, which decreases costs and health
  risks and increased use of rural labour, which
  provides more jobs for those in desperate need.
  1
• 1 Wikipedia on Fair trade http//en.wikipedia.o
  rg/wiki/Fair_trade, under Fair trade and Politics

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Claire Stoscheck on The Growing Fair Trade
Movement
3. May Fair Trade Help Reduce Migration Streams?

• Due to the coffee crisis, thousands of farmers
  are fleeing the countryside in search of work in
  the cities. But thanks to Fair Trade, the 2,400
  families in our cooperative are staying on the
  land because they have access to credit and a
  decent price for their harvest. They planted corn
  and beans using their income from Fair Trade, so
  they are eating fairly well at a time when hunger
  is a reality for many of their neighbours.
• Merling Preza, PRODECOOP, a cooperative in
  Nicaragua.

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YES!
3. May Fair Trade Help to Reduce Migration
Streams?

• This shows that Fair Trade initiatives have
  contributed to a certain extent to decrease the
  level of migration, like illustrated above on the
  example of the Nicaraguan coffee farmers.
• And as the World Bank formulates it, sustainable
  coffees (both fair trade and organic) can
  provide such benefits (as) increased use of
  rural labour, which provides more jobs for those
  in desperate need.

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In the future
4. Case Studies

• I shall conduct some field work in Manila where
  I shall research on the hand of two case studies,
  the Kamay Krafts and the Talithas creation
  Center, whether Fair Trade may contribute to a
  diminution of migration and if it does, in which
  way.
• So, here are the presentations of the two
  initiatives

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Kamay Krafts
4. Case Studies

• Kamay Krafts is a co-operative in the slums of
  Manila. The products, mostly bags and purses, out
  of recycling material like tetra, are sold in
  Europe, especially in Switzerland to fair trade
  retailers which then sell it on markets etc.
• It supplies these women with an additional income
  they can use for increasing the livelihood of
  their families.
• http//home.austarnet.com.au/dolls7/index.htm

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Talithas collection
4. Case Studies

• This is a small Fair Trade project that takes
  place within the activities of the philippino NGO
  Talitha Cumi Outreach Foundation in Manila. Bags,
  purses and different other items are made out of
  recycling material such as tetra, rice and
  flourbags etc.
• It is supposed to generate an additional income
  for the women of the Talitha Foundation.
• http//talithafoundation.org

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Fair Trade Trend
5. Conclusion

• Fair trade receives a high level of acceptation
  from the consumers side.
• Lots of fair trade initiatives between the South
  and a great number of European countries
• Big companies are jumping on the train of fair
  trade
• Ex In England, Nestlé, one of the biggest food
  companies world wide, announced the market
  entrance of their first fair trade coffee,
  Partners Blend Nescafé, in October 2005.
• Chiquita and Rainforest Alliance

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Innovative Initiatives in Europe
5. Conclusion

• coll.part collection made in Cambodia under fair
  conditions by organisations with a social project
  
• French Veja shoes, a company created in August
  2004 with an aim of proposing tennis shoes
  respecting men and environment.

http//www.collpart.com/,
http//www.veja.fr/
..and a lot more other Fair Trade initiatives.
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Scenario 1
5. Conclusion
Wishful thinking?

• Fair Trade may constantly raise in percent of the
  conventional trade.

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Scenario 2
Regional trade networks?
5. Conclusion

• Instead of enhancing the share of Fair Trade on
  conventional trade worldwide, one could think of
  an enhancement of regional economic networks. Ex.
  constitution of a union of islands north of
  Australia to one economic sector, similar to the
  European Common Market.
• Economic exchange and trade could further happen
  within these economic centres and ecologically
  spoken the environment would maybe suffer less
  since there would be less transport of products
  around the whole world.

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Open Discussion

• Scenario 1 vs. Scenario 2
• Impact of Fair Trade on conventional Market?
• Evaluation of fair trade projects?
• Start-off of multinationales in fair trade-
  something positive? Or negative? Why?

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Open Discussion

• What do you think about the following statement
  (found on Wikipedia)? Critics of so-called
  fairer trading practices charge that proposals
  for reform simply amount to protectionism,
  campaigners maintain that it is rich countries
  such as the United States and the European Union
  which operate expansive programmes that subsidise
  their domestic producers.