The Fairtrade Movement, legal support and social implications

公平贸易和替代贸易运动在国际贸易流动中所占的比例越来越大。由非政府经济行为者安排的这些措施声称，它们可以减轻政府行为者所实行的自由市场的严格性，并抵消富裕国家（特别是欧盟和美国）对许多农产品实行保护主义政府补贴的后果。对公平贸易运动的组织结构进行的研究很少，随着市场的扩大，迫切需要研究公平贸易运动的运作方式，不同网络的相互关系及其责任，以防止大型零售商和制造商可能“捕获”运动（雀巢最近推出了“公平贸易”产品）。随着公平贸易产品市场的扩大，大型跨国公司越来越有可能寻求拉拢公平贸易，破坏这些运动的最初目标。如果没有明确的规则和法律的基础，很容易被破坏，成为欺骗公众的行为。这项研究的主要目的是首先关注追踪进口到英国的公平贸易商品，追踪其踪迹，追溯到源头，调查每次所有权变更时提出的上述问题。随后的一项研究将扩大到进口到其他消费国的产品。“因此，目标是：评估公平贸易对生产国和进口国的价值。 评估是否需要一个法律的框架评估公平贸易在加强弱势群体的能力方面取得了多大的成功。这些目标旨在实现以下潜在应用和成果：透明度，以防止欺诈性滥用公平贸易运动建立保护机制，以确保问责制加强对网络的法律的或社会支持的可能性”

The Fairtrade and Alternative Trading Movements account for a growing part of interactional trade flows. Arranged by non-governmental economic actors, they claim to mitigate the rigors of the free market' as practiced by governmental actors, as well as counteracting the consequences of protectionist government subsidies maintained by the rich world (especially the EU and US) covering many agricultural products. Little research has been carried out into the organisational structure of Fair Trade movements and, as the market expands, it is urgent that research should establish the way in which Fair Trade movements operate, the interrelationship of different networks and their accountability to prevent possible 'capture' of the movement by large retailers and manufacturers (Nestle has recently launched a 'Fairtrade' product). As the market for Fair Trade products expands it is increasingly likely that large multinationals will seek to co-opt the trade and undermine the original objectives of these movements. If they have not clearly established rules and legal foundations they may very easily be undermined and a fraud practiced on the public. The key aim of the study is to focus initially on tracing Fair-Trade goods imported into the UK by following their trail back to source investigating the questions posed above at each change in ownership. A subsequent study will extend to products imported into other consuming countries."The objectives are therefore to: Evaluate the value of Fair-Trade to producing and importing countries. Assess whether a legal framework is necessary Evaluate how far Fair-Trade succeeds in strengthening the capabilities of disadvantaged groups. These objectives are structured to deliver the following potential applications and outcomes: Transparency in order to prevent fraudulent misuse of the Fair-Trade movement Creation of protective mechanisms to ensure accountability Possibility of strengthening legal or social support for the networks"