Michelle writes:I'm getting an education about fair trade products. Fair trade is defined as products from third world countries where the people are paid a fair wage for their work. Fair trade is often calculated by the time spent in making the product and materials used, based on the daily wage of the region.
There are no regulations as to what is truly fair trade, and many products are sold with that labeling but were bought at the markets with haggling and desperate vendors involved.
Many of the street vendors here will keep dropping their price in hopes of a sale. Often you realize they can't pay for their supplies and time selling at the low prices they are willing to take, but the economic reality is such that they need some cash to take home after a day of attempting to sell to the few tourists. The tourism industry has been hit hard since 9-11 and the recent housing slump.
These are the young beaders who make necklaces and bracelets (shown below) to sell in the US as fair trade products.
The young beaders who work for "Sharing the Dream" are delighted to have a job where the beads are supplied and they are paid for each piece created, not having to wait until after the sale. A couple of the girls had previously sold their products to a local shop. They found that after they were paid, the money received would only cover the purchase of new supplies. They had not received anything for their time.
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