CAN FAIR TRADE DEVELOP FROM BEING AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF TRADE TO BEING THE STATUS QUO?
Yes, absolutely. Hopefully there will be a time when there’s no distinction between fair trade and any other trade; trade itself should be fairer than it is. But that doesn’t need to be a charitable thing, it’s about having a level playing field. What we’re seeing now in the world is a very unlevel playing field. The Malawi Minister for Trade, coined it perfectly in BLACK GOLD. He said: “We don’t want aid, we want trade”. African nations want to trade their way out of the situation, but there are corporations and international institutions that are preventing it. The relationship between governments and corporations is becoming increasingly blurred, and one of the defining questions of the next decade will be about how producers and consumers fall into that equation as they get more and more marginalized and less empowered. How will they re- empower themselves? The story of Tadesse Meskela, in BLACK GOLD, shows how someone, on a micro level, is trying to do something about it in a way
