The Financial Times wrote a rather dismissive piece in its Weekend Edition about Bristol's Fairtrade City status. They pointed out that Fairtrade status really amounted to very little, with the requirements to get the status being very low. Really, Fairtrade City status amounts to not much more than taxpayer marketing subsidies to Cafedirect plc, the coffee and tea producer listed on the London Stock Exchange, and other Fairtrade companies.

Bristol might be a Fairtrade(TM) City, but it sure isn't a Fair Trade City. Only when the port in Bristol lets the products of other countries free access to United Kingdom will it be a Fair Trade City. That means no tariffs, no quotas, and no rules of origin. True fair trade has nothing to with counter-productive price-support schemes and everything to do with free and fair access to our economy.