Multi-stakeholder approaches to ethical trade: towards a reorganisation of UK retailers' global supply chains?

As a result of consumer campaigns and media exposure of poor working conditions at sites of export production, retailers are under heightened pressure to organise their global supply chains more responsibly. This paper critically evaluates the work of the UK's Ethical Trading Initiative in responding to this pressure, both strategically and in practice. It is argued that for ethical trading strategy to make a more significant difference to the organisation of global supply chains, attention needs to be paid to the terms of trade between retailers and suppliers, as well as to issues of worker welfare at sites of production.