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Following the successful promotion of such alternatives to regular commercial trade – backed up by popular trade justice campaigns – mainstream retailers have responded by re-examining their own supply sources.
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Retailers now pay much more attention to trying to check that working conditions in their supplier factories and workshops cannot be severely criticized.
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It is no longer unusual for orders from reputable retailers to require their suppliers to conform to at least some of the minimum international standards of employment that are set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These require minimum rates of pay that provide sufficient for basic human needs; no factory employment of school age children; rights to breaks; and so forth.
Although such protocols exist, it is often difficult to be sure that they are fully complied with by all suppliers to importers and retailers.
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Attention to these minimum standards is supported by what is branded as the «fair trade» movement, encouraged by various NGOs.
Their «Fairtrade» mark is so heavily advertised that it is familiar to most shoppers – the «Fairtrade» brand has become a huge commercial success.
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For community cooperation internationally
