Abstract

GARCIA CHIANG, Armando. Fair trade, an alternative of local development?. Polis [online]. 2011, vol.7, n.1, pp.105-140. ISSN 2594-0686.

Resulting from different alternative trade initiatives, "fair trade" may be defined as a type of partnership that seeks sustainable development for excluded producers or with major disadvantages. It seeks to achieve such objective by proposing better commercial conditions to farmers and educating consumers. This type of trade, has known, in the past two decades, a steady growth in the industrialized countries. It has evinced different conceptions and strategies to progress, raising questions about the impact of its practices and its ability as a real alternative of sustainable and equitable local development. This article carries out a brief review of the history of fair trade, introduces a discussion on its relationship with the local development and social economy, and presents concrete examples of this commercial alternative both sides the producers and the consumers.

Keywords : fair trade; local development; trade relations.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )