Time to give fair trade a go: Academic

THURSDAY 8 MAY 2008

With Fair Trade Fortnight underway an academic from The Australian National University is asking the government to give Fair Trade a fair go by investing part of the country’s aid budget in the Fair Trade market to harness its contribution to regional capacity building and development.

Dr Anna Hutchens says that in a time of high prices for staple commodities such as rice, the Australian government has an excellent opportunity to help support rural communities and agricultural economies in our region by encouraging equitable trading relationships and market access.

“Supporting Fair Trade partnerships in the Asia Pacific region – where the bulk of the world’s poor live – would enable our neighbours to break free from aid-based support and instead engage more meaningfully in the global trade system,” said Dr Hutchens.

Fair Trade is a trading relationship that aims to ensure better conditions and rights for producers in developing countries. Dr Hutchens has spent four years researching the Fair Trade movement, the results of which will be published in her book Entrepreneurship, Power and Defiance: The Globalisation of the Fair Trade Movement later this year.

Dr Hutchens said that while the former Howard government had been unresponsive to the growing Fair Trade market in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, the Rudd government’s focus of Pacific partnerships and its commitment to the multilateral trading system were positive signs for Fair Trade.

“The change-over in government offers a timely opportunity to better recognise the Fair Trade industry’s contribution to development and to harness this contribution in promoting regional growth.

“Last year the market in Australia and New Zealand was worth $12 million and the value of Fair Trade sales have risen by 440 per cent since 2004. In New Zealand the government has been very enthusiastic about Fair Trade, providing ongoing financial support for a leading Fair Trade business, Trade Aid, as well as a national Fair Trade education campaign for consumers. Some government departments are also procuring Fair Trade products.

“The Rudd government is focused on building partnerships with the Pacific. Supporting Fair Trade in our region would demonstrate its commitment to this new style of engagement by ensuring our neighbours benefit directly from the developmental potential of international trade,” she said.

For more information or to arrange interviews:
Dr Anna Hutchens – 0410 644 100
Martyn Pearce, ANU Media Office – (02) 6125 5575 / 0416 249 245