So finally something more on fair trade

Ok, I’d better post this now, otherwise I may never post it… and I’ll still always want to write more!

I always used to wonder when writing a big long chunk of writing, otherwise known as an essay (however this isn’t meant to be an essay):

"Why can't I just write all my reasons as a set of bullet points so that they are easier to distinguish between and also thus saving a whole lot of unnecessary waffling? The marker's just going to be looking for specific points anyway..." So now we are still taught to write big wordy essays and I was going to write a big long chunk of writing, otherwise known as an essay (but not going to write very much now) because my mind has been programmed to do it. (I don't think I've ever said on this blog that the modern education system is nonsense and needs fine-tuning/modernising. And I don't mean by NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement). This "NCEA" in New Zealand does not count as modernising!!!)

Ok, so free trade. If it benefited poor countries so much, why don't all the poor countries promote free trade by lowering any tariffs they have imposed on imports. Similarly, when the rich first world countries say they're trying to help the third world countries by giving them aid and writing off their outstanding debt, they're not targeting the root of the problem. I think the old Chinese proverb "catch a man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime" applies here.

The idea of free trade is that it would help make everyone more competitive and improve efficiency (each country only makes what they are the most efficient at and imports what they are least efficient at producing). Not to mention free trade involves removing all tariffs and subsidies from all involved countries.

But a really big habit third world countries seem to have is getting their natural resources mined and exported to rich nations, and then getting those goods offered back to them at a higher price, meanwhile the population of the third world country is used as cheap labour. This is 'extra nice' for employers in rich countries since it saves them responsibility to workers as they would otherwise have been required to have for workers in rich 1st world countries.

I used to support free trade. One of my reasons was that I liked the positive connotations attached to the words "free" and "trade" and thought that the only reason third world countries don't reduce any outstanding tariffs (thus promoting free trade) was because the life and luxuries of their current 'dictator' would suffer. Ok... it's true that "fair" "trade" does have positive connotations to it too, but at least think about free trade and fair trade instead of choosing based on which one sounds the best. “Would somebody please think of the children!” (that just seemed to fit there)

Here's a quote I found by a British Green MP named Caroline Lucas:

... many developing countries called for a study to examine the effects of tariff reductions on local industries and jobs, before being required to open their markets further. Local industries, they say, have already collapsed in most African and least developed countries as a result of previous tariff cuts....The choice is not between global trade rules and chaos: rather, it is between trade rules that undermine sustainability and favour the rich, and trade rules that support sustainability and equity.
The internal development of a third world country depends on the poor country itself and is something that foreign countries can only help to an extent.

So there’s my piece of “undeveloped” chunks of writing.

Have a nice day!