What's the difference between free trade and fair trade?

[ekonomix]

Free trade means being able to buy what you want at any price you can agree on, even if you know you will sell the same product you just bought for 20 times what you paid for it. There exist no reason - tariffs, quotas - to prevent you from doing so.

Basically you are free to exploit the seller's poverty to enrich yourself to the maximum.

Fair rade is where you decide that you could share some of your rofits and give the seller a better deal. However, even with fair trade there might be quotas and tariffs.

Some free trade is fair (just depends whether you give the seller a better deal, a farier deal) and some fair trade is not free (when you have to pay some tariffs when you are importing the goods).

Whether trade is free or not is determined by import and export regulations, but whether trade is fair is determined to some extent by conscience.

Note that in the long run, it is possible that fair trade is better for all parties; if the farmers you buy your wheat from are treated more fairly, they are more likely to want to and be healthier so they can deliver higher quality wheat, with less chemicals for example. So fair trade could be more profitable to you in the long run.