81 Observatory Ital J Gender-Specifc Med 2017; 3(2): 81-84 The efect of Fair Trade on ethnic minorities: evidence from a feld study in Vietnam Stefano Castriota 1 , Marco Costantino 2 1. Università di Bolzano, Facoltà di Economia; 2. Consorzio CTM Altromercato. Received 18 October 2016; accepted 27 March 2017. Summary. The study has compared a number of economic and social well-being indicators for two randomly selected samples of handicraft producers afliated versus not afliated to a fair trade organisation. The producers belonged to Viet- namese ethnic minorities. Fair Trade did not signifcantly afect the earnings of members, because the production of handi- crafts is always a side economic activity. Nevertheless, FT af- fliation appears to be positively related with some important gender-sensitive, social and human capital variables. L’efetto del commercio equo e solidale sulle minoranze etniche: evidenza da uno studio in Vietnam Riassunto. Lo studio ha confrontato una serie di indicatori di benessere economico e sociale in due campioni di pro- duttrici artigianali, dei quali uno apparteneva a un’organiz- zazione di commercio equo e solidale e l’altro no. Le parte- cipanti allo studio appartenevano a due minoranze etniche vietnamite. Il commercio equo e solidale non ha infuito in modo signifcativo sui guadagni, dal momento che la pro- duzione artigianale è sempre un’attività economica collate- rale. Tuttavia l’afliazione al commercio equo sembra in- fuenzare positivamente una serie di importanti variabili di genere, sociali e di capitale umano. Introduction Fair Trade Fair Trade is an alternative approach to international commerce based on the connection between socially responsible consumers in the north and marginalized farmers and artisans in the southern regions of the world. It aims to promote socio-economic inclusion of the lat- ter through a package of benefits which include anti- cyclical mark-ups on prices, long-term relationships, credit facilities and business consultancy. Since poverty is often considered to be the end result of a set of condi- tions such as lack of market access, insufficient productiv- ity and low bargaining power, fair trade circuit provides producers with the tools that allow them to overcome these weaknesses and climb higher on the value chain. The relationship between producers’ organizations and importing organizations (named Alternative Trade Organizations or ATOs) is governed by the ten principles prescribed by the World Fair Trade Organisation (WF- TO): i) Creating opportunities for economically disad- vantaged producers; ii) Transparency and accountabil- ity; iii) fair trading practices; iv) Payment of a fair price; v) Ensuring no child labour and forced labour; vi) Com- mitment to non discrimination, gender equity and free- dom of association; vii) Ensuring good working condi- tions; viii) Providing capacity building; ix) Promoting fair trade; x) Respect for the environment. An increasing amount of literature suggests that fair trade does have a positive impact on the life of its ben- eficiaries not only in the most expected way, that is through the price premium, but rather by the effect of the other criteria applied in the fair trade relationship (capacity building, time and price stability, pre-financ- ing...). These results appear consistent with Sen’s capa- bilities theory 1 , depicting fair trade as a kind of com- mercial relationship able to increase producers’ capa- bilities and, consequently, their inclusion in the market. The present empirical analysis aims to provide new evidence about fair trade impact, with particular reference to the inclusion of ethnic minorities in this value chain. Craft Link Craft Link (Centre for Handicraft Research, Linkage and Development) is a Vietnamese not-for-profit, fair trade organization started in 1996 by international NGOs, whose main mission is helping traditional craft produc- Pigs fight when eating, but unite when a tiger comes Hmong saying - Copyright - Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore downloaded by IP 54.173.171.255 Wed, 08 Dec 2021, 18:49:23