Artículo que ha sido publicado en el número 11 del EBSI Tradebrief del mes de septiembre 2013.
Para acceder a la publicación en la web, hacer click en:
http://www.ebsi.ie/eBSI_Tradebrief_Issue_11.pdf
“Trade, not aid”.
Decades ago, with that scream a group of small farmers
claimed to the UNCTAD congress that the international community should open her
eyes and perceive the damage caused by its policy of aid to developing
countries. Such policy was based on granting loans on favourable terms to
support raw materials supply from those countries to the first world companies.
Actually, such funding was hardly refundable by the weak economies and stockpiled
unpaid until it reached a level where the debt was either forgiven by countries
or renegotiated to very long terms, becoming in fact a modern way of
colonization.
However, despite the large sums involved, the scheme
didn’t provide effective solutions to the problems of the supplying countries,
most in need of authentic implementation of market economies than in more injections
of funds which, in practice, helped large multinational corporations to keep
alive a very profitable commodity market.
It took years to the public opinion to realize that
something had to be done to stop the wheel and change the approach to the
problem, recalling the biblical command “do not give him fish, teach him to
fish”.
It was a Dutch public agency, Solidaridad, who first
launched a product labelled “Fair Trade” informing to first world consumers
that such product – Max Havelaar Mexican coffee – was acquired from an
association of small producers managed under democratic criteria and marketed
according to Fair Trade standards, i.e. paying the producers a minimum price
that covers their production costs and guarantee a certain return.
It was not by chance that the first “Fair Trade”
product was coffee as such a product met
a number of requirements which made it the ideal item for the launch of the
initiative: consumers are in the first world – actually, the world’s larger
coffee consumer continent is Europe – while produced by milliards of small
farmers living in Africa, South-America and Asia, mostly in very poor conditions;
it’s considered a luxury article, easy to label and aimed at high-end consumers
which are to some extent conscious about the need to help the poorest countries
in their development.
Nowadays, the number of initiatives has grown
significantly, reaching not only the cultivation of certain products but
covering aspects such as environmental protection, sustainable development of
tropical forests, the proper use of water resources and/or sustainable tourism.
By adhering to those initiatives, multilateral
agencies, governments, NGOs and import / export companies undertake to respect
in their commercial transactions a set of established standards, which set out
from the prohibition of the use or trade of goods produced by labour subject,
to working conditions close to slavery, to fixing a fair price that allows the sustainability
of productive activity in the developing country supporting their integration
into the international market.
On the other hand, to label an item or a service as a
Fair Trade product, the company is accessing the market with a competitive
advantage, as it implies respect to
values that make it more attractive for potential buyers. When the consumer
chooses from the supermarket shelves a product labelled as adhered to any of
these initiatives, although its price may be substantially higher than that
similar products, he is aware that his contribution will help the development
of producer countries and their inhabitants, improving their living conditions,
promoting social welfare and fighting against injustices of conventional trade.
Adhere to these initiatives has advantages for all
market players: producers, purchasing associations, consumers, etc. but also
for banks that finance these transactions, because the fact that there are
entities which grant the required certificates and conduct regular audits to
ensure compliance with the standards, allow banks to better understanding of
its customers' business operations.
Carlos A. Bacigalupe
Septiembre 2013
http://www.ebsi.ie/eBSI_Tradebrief_Issue_11.pdf
