Fair Trade
Economics and Politics
Humanity has always been involved in trade and exchange, and has greatly benefited from this. But trade can also be socially and environmentally destructive. Also, today 60% of world trade is estimated to be intra-company, i.e. based on tax considerations and not on Ricardo's mutual benefits. The key environmental and social externalities of trade need to be internalised to ensure full cost accounting of the impacts.
What is the optimum balance between self-reliance and global market integration? What are the pros and cons of fostering export dependency as the prime route of development? Could a new fair trade regime be implemented to provide a better deal for poor countries? How can the WTO's powers be balanced internally and externally to ensure that its trade promotion agenda does not harm more important goals?
