How Can Fair Trade Promote Development?

The world economy and globalization have caused endless debates with regards to the ongoing impoverishment of small local producers of the South. As a number of Altermondialist found it difficult to stop the globalization wave, if it was at all stoppable, many of them thought about a new form of trade that would take into account the ethical and human development elements in order to establish a more human economic trade system. This new way of envisaging the world economy came as a result of the crucial importance that human development issues have gained in International Relations thinking. Fair trade has been popular in many countries of the South as more and more cooperatives seek to be part of it regardless of the types or quantity of products they can export. European countries adhered to this ethical trade by prioritizing fair trade goods. This research is an evaluation of how fair trade processes are taking place in Morocco, in comparison to interesting experiences in other countries such as Nicaragua and Burkina Faso. Argan production in the Souss-Massa-Draa Region of Morocco are today more export-oriented through fair trade.