Make Trade Fair was a campaign organized by
Oxfam International to promote
trade justice and
fair trade among governments, institutions, and multinational corporations. As of 2022, the website is defunct. It first appears to have gone offline in early 2004.
Objectives
The campaign has focused on the elimination of several trade practices:
*
Dumping, which occurs when highly subsidized, surplus commodities from developed countries such as rice, cotton, corn, and sugar are sold at low prices and farmers from poor countries have difficulty competing. It is believed that this creates an uneven playing field where farmers in developing countries are unable to compete in the market with cheaper foreign produce and crops.
*
Tariffs, where nations enforce high taxes on imported goods, restricting the sales of products from other nations.
* Unbalanced
labour rights for women, who often perceive that they earn lower wages than their male counterparts.
* Stringent
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
issues, that prevent the prices of medication, software, and textbooks (e.g.
Gene patents,
Chemical patent
A chemical patent, pharmaceutical patent or drug patent is a patent for an invention in the chemical or pharmaceuticals industry. Strictly speaking, in most jurisdictions, there are essentially no differences between the legal requirements to o ...
s, and
Software patents) from being lowered. Thus, such essential goods are often inaccessible to developing nations.
Key events
Make Trade Fair concerts
In 2002 and 2004, special benefit concerts were held in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
to promote the Make Trade Fair campaign. Proceeds from the shows went to aid Oxfam's promotional campaigns. Produced by
Emily Eavis, Marianne Troup, and
Lily Sobhani, performers from the 2002 "Fairplay" gig include
Chris Martin and
Jonny Buckland from
Coldplay,
Noel Gallagher, and
Ms. Dynamite
Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley (born 26 April 1981), better known as Ms. Dynamite, is a British singer and rapper. She is the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards.
Early years
She was born Niomi Arleen Mc ...
, while the 2004 event included Michael Stipe,
Razorlight
Razorlight are an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell. Along with Borrell, the current line-up of the band is composed of founding members Björn Ågren on guitar and bassist Carl Delemo ...
, and
The Thrills.
In 2008, the Make Trade Fair support CD ''The Cake Sale'' was produced. The 9 songs were performed by
Lisa Hannigan,
Nina Persson,
Gary Lightbody,
Gemma Hayes
Gemma Hayes (born 11 August 1977) is an Irish musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments, including the piano and the harmonica. She is also a m ...
,
Glen Hansard,
Josh Ritter,
Conor Deasy and
Neil Hannon, and written by Deasy, Hansard,
Emm Gryner
Emm Gryner (born 8 June 1975 in Sarnia, Ontario) is a Canadian-Filipino singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfie ...
,
Paul Noonan,
Ollie Cole,
Damien Rice
Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success ...
and others.
WTO Ministerial Conference of 2005
The Make Trade Fair campaign was active at the
WTO Ministerial Conference of 2005, held in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
,
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. Various demonstrations and activities were held, including the handover of some 17.8 million signatures on the Big Noise petition to
WTO Director General
Pascal Lamy.
References
External links
Make Trade Fair (official site)Oxfam InternationalOxfam AmericaTrade Justice Movement
{{Authority control
Fair trade
Oxfam