Oxfam’s Campaign for Fair Trade
By Nicole Mathewson
What do Chris Martin (Coldplay), Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Antonio Banderas and Alanis Morrisette have in common with a sack of corn? Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign. Corn is one of the exports being dumped on celebrities’ heads to draw attention to the unfair trade practices of rich countries.
What’s It All About? 
The campaign by Oxfam International and it’s twelve associate agencies calls on governments, institutions and multinational companies to change their rules so trade can become part of the solution to poverty, not part of the problem.
Farmers in developing countries could work themselves out of poverty by selling their products to wealthy countries at a reasonable price.
So what’s stopping them?
The appalling unfairness of the current world trade system.
Legislation regarding trade follows the idea that one size fits all. Unfortunately many farmers in developing countries are smallholders - struggling to earn a living with unstable ecological conditions, high transport costs and little government support. They also have to compete with subsidised farmers from places like the U.S. and the European Union dumping surplus crops in their countries.
So Why Are Celebrities Involved?
The point of using celebrities in the campaign is to attract people’s attention, says Oxfam New Zealand’s advocacy and campaigns manager Shuna Lennon. “[It’s] like a giant billboard. If Chris Martin says ‘look at this’ you’re more likely to than if I said it.”
In the photo shoot Chris Martin is covered in rice, representing the surplus dumping on poor countries by the United States. The U.S. government pays it’s farmers $1billion a year to over-produce rice and dump the surplus at extremely low prices in poor countries. One fifth of the population of Haiti has been driven out of business and into poverty as a result.
Ms Lennon says the United States hasn’t stopped unfair trade, but is under enormous pressure to make a change for the better. So we’re just keeping the pressure on and hoping there will be a breakthrough, she said.
Oxfam’s next big protest will be targeting the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong in December. Oxfam would like to see the WTO deliver a pro-development plan as an outcome of the meeting. This would ensure wealthy countries stop export dumping and remove barriers to trade to allow developing countries to decide their own trade policies that will work for them.
According to Oxfam, New Zealand has a potentially important role, as Kiwi, Tim Grosser, is the Chair of the WTO agriculture negotiations. However, our influence may not be good for poorer countries, as the New Zealand government’s view has typically been in favour of the one-size fits all trade liberalisation
Take Action
Those interested in making a difference can help in a variety of ways, firstly by signing the Big Noise petition . There are seven million signatures already and they’re hoping to reach ten million by December, Ms Lennon said.
Fair trade items, such as coffee, chocolate and tea, are available in New Zealand at Trade Aid outlets and participating supermarkets. You can help the fight by buying fair trade products and asking retailers to stock them, this will show them the demand is there.
You can also check out Oxfam New Zealand and sign up for their e-newsletter to receive updates on Oxfam’s campaigns.
Further Information
