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Fair
Trade
What
is Just or Fair Trade?
Why Just Trade?
What
trade policies do we want?
What's
New?
PC(USA) Just Trade Initiatives
What Can I Do to Support Fair Trade?
Fair
Trade News
 Fairness
in Flowers
Have you ever thought
about what is behind the pretty petals in your bouquet? According
to the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), the flowers in
your vase today were probably in the ground half way around
the world on large plantations, just a few days ago. What else
should we as Christians know?
Visit the Fairness in Flowers resource
page for information and materials you and your congregation
can use
Order
Eco-Palm Leaves for Palm Sunday
Find out
why
What
is Just or Fair Trade?
Fair
Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency,
and respect, that seeks greater equity between all involved.
Fair trade contributes to sustainable development by offering
fair wages and prices, better trading conditions and rights
for marginalized producers and workers – especially in
the global South (sometimes referred to as the Two-Thirds Majority
World).
Fair Trade
organizations (backed by consumers) support producers with fair
compensation, technical and capital assistance, raise public
awareness and campaign for changes in the rules and practice
of international trade.
Just Trade,
as a term adds to this national and regional considerations,
and factors in issues such as sustainability, food sovereignty
and the protection of important sectors, fledgling industries
and people in society.
 Why
Fair / Just Trade?
Biblical
teachings from the Old Testament and the Gospel of Jesus call
upon us to love our neighbor, and certainly this implies just
treatment for our neighbors, near and far, who produce needed
goods. Our globalized economy brings all of us into relationship
with distant producers and the conditions of those producers
has become a pressing moral and ethical issue.
To help
us better understand this relationship is an essay from the
Fair Trade Federation:
From around
the world, we hear heart-wrenching stories about mistreated
and abused workers who earn meager wages. Or worse, we hear
about millions of children sold into servitude or forced to
work in unsafe conditions for pittance wages to contribute
to their family's survival. Unfortunately, these stories are
all too common in the new global economy where competitiveness
and profits to stockholders are paramount, and poverty is
rising. Read
more...
What
kind of trade policies do we want?
- Trade
policies that reduce poverty
-
Trade
policies that create living wage jobs and protect workers'
rights
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Democratic
and transparent trade negotiations that include broad-based
citizen consultation and participation
-
Trade
policies that protect environmental and public interest
laws and regulations
-
Trade
policies that support family farmers and food security
-
Trade
policies that enable countries to invest in sustainable
development
What's
New?
Adopt-A-Supermarket
Make Where You Shop a Fair Trade Hot Spot
Find
out more and download the materials you need!
Find
out how Cambodian rice farmers are tipping the balance in their
favor with fair pricing
Just
Trade Initiatives by PC(USA)
enough
for everyone | joining
hands against hunger | other
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Enough
for Everyone
The
Presbyterian Coffee Project
is another way to support Just Trade. Already, more than
1,300 congregations are serving and/or selling Equal Exchange's
Fair Trade coffee, tea and cocoa. Go...
Sweat-Free
T educates
about sweatshops and enables you to buy declared sweat-free
products. This is also a part of Just Trade, particularly
when items are purchased from overseas. Fair trade means
fair wages, and this is the intent behind Sweat-Free T:
that our purchases translate into livable wages for producers.
Go...
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Joining
Hands Against Hunger
 Peruvian
Fair Trade through Joining Hands Against Hunger
While
the site is still under construction, you can peruse their
handsome Web site at www.fairtradeperu.com/page2english.htm.
The Virtual Fair Trade Bridge Catalogue of the
Peru Joining Hands Against Hunger Fair Trade Initiative,
where you can buy Fair Trade Peruvian crafts from a cooperative
of artisans, is ready for business.
For
more information on the Presbyterian Hunger Program's
Joining Hands Against Hunger see www.pcusa.org/hunger/jhah
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Other
PHP Initiatives and Partnerships
What
are the criteria for SweatFree? And where can the products
be found?
Shoppers have more sweat-free options this holiday
season than ever before. One year after the historic launching
of the “Shop with a Conscience” sweat-free
purchasing guide, the list of sweat-free retailers
has grown to eleven.
“The
places listed on this sweat-free guide came out of the
brave resistance of workers demanding to be treated
with dignity and respect,” says Bjorn Claeson of
SweatFree Communities.
The
anti-sweatshop network that created the “Shop
with a Conscience” guide includes Sweatshop
Watch, SweatFree Communities, International Labor Rights
Fund, United Students Against Sweatshops, and Peace through
Interamerican Community Action (PICA). The guide has been
updated for the 2005 shopping season.
Download
a "Shop with a Conscience" FLIER 
to share with friends and family.
Fair
Trade Fair and Sustainable Trade Symposium
Cancún, Mexico - Sept. 2003
This was a wonderful celebration and sharing of fair trade
lessons brought by fair trade cooperatives from around
the world. The Presbyterian Hunger Program was one of
the sponsors and gave scholarships so two people from
Nicaragua could participate. One was Zulema Mena, the
president of the Nueva Vida Cooperative that produces
PC(USA)'s Sweat-Free T-shirts. You can view
the colorful program for the 3-day symposium and fair.
(PDF 311KB) Or
read more about it in Andrew's report
from Cancun.
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What
Can I Do to Support Fair Trade?
Shop
with a Conscience for SweatFree products on the SweatshopWatch
Web site
Share
the "Shop with a Conscience" Flier with
friends and family
Shop
for Fair Trade
Be
a globally conscious consumer. Asking retailers to carry fair
trade products, as well as purchasing them, provides needed
livelihood to struggling producers and artisans. Explore
the many options
"Check
Out Fair Trade" ~ Oxfam America's Supermarket Campaign
Coffee. Tea. Chocolate. Bananas. They sound like items at the
top of a typical shopping list. But, as popular as those products
may be, many of the people who harvest them don’t benefit
much from their hefty sales. Some don’t earn enough to
feed their families.
Oxfam
America, working with partners and allies around the world,
wants to change all that. As part of its successful Make Trade
Fair campaign, Oxfam America is calling on consumers to put
pressure on their local supermarkets – to guarantee that
they stock Fair Trade Certified™ products, display them
on prominent shelves and market them to their shoppers. Go...
Fair
Trade News
Fair Trade and the World Trade Organization (WTO)
The price farmers, craftspeople and workers receive for the products
they produce has a direct bearing on their ability to house,
clothe and feed their families. Simply put, trade is fair, or
just, when producers can survive and thrive as a result of their
hard work. Trade is unfair when producers are forced to live
in poverty due to unsustainably low prices and discriminatory
trade rules and practices.
The
WTO rules are generally very favorable to multinational corporations
and the more developed nations, and are unfavorable to economically
weaker nations and the poor.
For this reason, thousands of farmers, students, and other citizens
from dozens of countries joined over 1,000 non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) in Cancún to oppose the WTO. Following
are reports and photos from the events that unfolded in September,
2003.
Mexico Dispatches, Photos and Background Go...
Helping
Third World One Banana at a Time
By Julia Moskin (May, 5, 2004; New York Times)
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