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
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, the ...
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 sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
issues, that prevent the prices of medication, software, and textbooks (e.g.
Gene patents,
Chemical patents, and
Software patent
A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...
s) 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
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
Coldplay are a British Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey (band m ...
,
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Gallagher is the primary songwriter, lead guitarist and a co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis (band), Oasis. After leaving Oasis, he formed Noel ...
, and
Ms. Dynamite
Naomi 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 Naomi Arleen M ...
, 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 Dalem ...
, 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
Nina Elisabet Persson (; born 6 September 1974) is the lead singer and lyricist for the Swedish rock band The Cardigans. She also has worked as a solo artist, releasing two albums as A Camp and one under her own name, and has appeared as a guest ...
,
Gary Lightbody,
Gemma Hayes,
Glen Hansard
Glen James Hansard (born 21 April 1970) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten o ...
,
Josh Ritter
Joshua B. Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana (music), Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2 ...
,
Conor Deasy and
Neil Hannon, and written by Deasy, Hansard,
Emm Gryner,
Paul Noonan,
Ollie Cole,
Damien Rice
Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper (band), Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate succe ...
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)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. Various demonstrations and activities were held, including the handover of some 17.8 million signatures on the Big Noise petition to
WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
Director General
Pascal Lamy.
References
External links
Make Trade Fair (official site)Oxfam InternationalOxfam AmericaTrade Justice Movement
{{Authority control
Fair trade
Oxfam