FairTradeWeb

The Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade) is a national multi-sectoral alliance espousing a comprehensive trade and development agenda reflecting the interests of the broad sectors of our society.

FairTrade was launched in late 2001 to counter the deleterious effects of unfair trade and the unfair liberalization commitments made by the economic technocrats, which have devastating impact on industries, farms and jobs.

Today, the fight for fairness and justice in the area of trade and development continued to widen – from the urgency of re-calibrating tariffs and engaging the economic technocrats on the wisdom of having one-sided unilateral tariff liberalization to the difficult task of exposing and countering the scourge of smuggling and in participating in the national and global debates to define the trade and development challenges facing the Philippines and nations of the world.

For the past years, FairTrade has broadened into several areas of work: Alternative economic paradigm advocacy and empowerment (trade and development campaigns, informal sector and youth movement building), research (bilaterals and inputs to the agro industrial development plan as part of FairTrade’s Nationalist Development Agenda), publications, trainings (Institutionalization of FairTrade Center for Enterprise Development and Summer Institute for FairTrade Economics), and resource collection on trade and development.

FairTrade Vision

FairTrade seeks to promote a job-full and progressive Philippine economy through:

• the promotion of fair trade rules and active agro-industrial policies based on the existing development needs of the nation,
• the development of a positive agro-industrial culture to foster innovation, hard work and solidarity between and among the productive sectors of Philippine society, and
• the transformation of an economy debased and stunted by colonial mentality, unequal trade and neo-liberal dogma into a modern, sustainable and broad-based.

What’s FairTrade fighting for?

(1) The full implementation of the safety nets laws (safeguards, anti-dumping and countervailing duty) to prevent foreign dumping and import surges,

(2) A review and re-calibration of the one-sided and unilateral trade liberalization program under the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and the corresponding SAP-based commitments made to the WTO and AFTA,

(3) and the adoption of a balanced and progressive development framework which recognizes the importance of upgrading local industry and agriculture and calibrating Philippine integration in the global economy based on the level of development of the country and the development needs of major sectors of society.

(4) Undertaking multisectoral consultations, workshops and dialogues (specially with the concerned government agencies) on pressing trade and economic issues such as analysis of existing tariff regimes, proposals on tariff reforms, safety nets and development of alternative policies on rebuilding industry and agriculture,

(5) preparing industry situationers on industries experiencing survival problem and trading difficulties such as the vegetable industry, cement industry, onion industry, petrochemical industry, automotive industry, sugar industry, aviation industry, etc.

(3) developing a unified perspective on trade and economic development problems and concerns in the Philippines and what are the most feasible development alternatives for the country, and

(4) strengthening networking and exchange of ideas with similarly-minded international and national civil society organizations.

To view FairTrade 2006 Annual Report, click here.

(updated June 01, 2007)

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The Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade)
3/f Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) Headquarters
#56 Mo. Ignacia cor. Dr. Lascano, Quezon City, The Philippines
(+632) 372 49 91 to 92 local 30
(+632) 372 39 24
fta[at]fairtradealliance.org
at: http://www.fairtradealliance.org