Focus on fair trade in film festival

A film festival featuring the lives of people in developing countries will open this week to promote the concept of fair trading in Hong Kong.

The Make Trade Fair Film Festival, organised by Oxfam, is part of a three-year worldwide campaign to draw attention to how developing countries are exploited when trading with their developed counterparts.

The 18-day festival will open on Thursday at the Space Museum to mark the start of the campaign that spans 17 countries, including Japan and the United States.

The festival, which follows the Hong Kong International Film Festival that ended yesterday, will feature 11 films that depict the hardship of workers in countries including Cambodia, India and the mainland.

Oxfam spokesman Connie Choi said it was hoped the festival would arouse public interest in fair trading, which had yet to take root in affluent Hong Kong.

'Unfair trading seems not to be a concern for Hong Kong but is in fact against the interests of the whole world. It will lead to social unrest and hurt consumer interest,' she said. 'For instance, the coffee price has dropped sharply but the selling price remains the same. Farmers see no rise in their income as traders in developed countries take much of the profits, and consumers have to pay more than they should.'