Fair Trade USA is loosening regulations to include sourcing from larger plantations and inclusion of up to 10% of ingredients to be labelled, “Fair Trade”. Critics question the integrity of this change and its independence from Fair Trade International. This also forces firms like Starbucks that use Fair Trade USA’s logo to take a stance.
The phrase “business ethics” implies that business has a code of moral to follow in order to make ethical judgments- like a group conscience. Milton Friedman sees the corporation only responsible for following the basic regulations of the society. Freeman’s explanation of Stakeholder Theory suggests that though the business may adhere to the society’s customs, but only for the sake of profit.
If the corporation is a collective mind comprised of stakeholders that tries to fulfill the wishes of the stakeholders, wouldn’t these individuals share at least some level of common morals? Another goal of a firm, besides making profit, is to satisfy the customer’s demand. This satisfaction includes moral satisfaction. In the process of branding, a customer buys the moral code the brand represents along with the good itself; I am paying the extra dollar for not the “fair trade” coffee at Starbucks, but the trust that my ethical stance is being upheld by the firm. How can a business be completely independent from that pressure?