Fair Trade is for sustainability¹ is the message of the Fair Trade movement on the second World Fair Trade Day. Events will take place across the world from Kathmandu to Canada. They will be taking part in this global event on Saturday May 17th, promoting a positive and long term vision for trade.

Trade should be the door through which to escape from poverty, not the one to lock people in. Trade should be environmentally sustainable - ensuring preservation of the planet for the benefit of all. The existing international trade regime is entrenching poverty, destroying the environment; to continue on this course is not an option. Fair Trade is proof that if the rules are fair, trade can be sustainable means to enriching producers and consumers on opposite sides of the world.

World Fair Trade Day 2003 comes in the year that the Fair Trade movement is bigger and wider than ever. IFAT¹, the International Federation for Alternative Trade, represents Fair Trade producer associations, exporters, importers and retailers in more than 55 countries. This year, May 17th will see more than a thousand events across Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.  Check www.wftday.org for further details.

High income countries receive 80 cents of every US dollar generated in the global economy; low income countries, with the most extreme concentrations of poverty, with 40% of the world¹s population, receive just 3 cents1. In the coffee sector, farmers and workers are at the raw end of a price crash so severe the World Bank has stated, ³If current trends continue as predicted by many, a coffee crisis could evolve into a broad social and environmental crisis.²2 World Fair Trade Day coincides with a high level meeting of the World Bank and International Coffee Organisation on May 19th, at which members of the Fair Trade movement such as Oxfam will be calling for the major players in the coffee trade to work together to provide long-term sustainable solutions.

Fair Trade is trade that is based on dialogue, transparency and respect. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers, especially in the South.

Overseas, the highlights of World Fair Trade Day in 2003 will include live music performances and parades, exhibitions, meetings, debates, discussions, samplings, promotions and activities for children across Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Japan. Traditional crafts producers in Nepal will rally on the main streets of Kathmandu while the Zimbabwean Fair Trade company Dezign Inc., despite a tumultuous year, will celebrate the opening of its own retail shop at Victoria Falls. Across the USA, Canada and Europe there will be special Fair Trade fairs, festivities and in-store promotions. The Finnish Fair Trade sailing ship, Estelle, will be in dock in Helsinki to coincide with the flamboyant World Village festival, welcoming curious visitors for on-board tours.