World trade is not fair. Throughout the world people live in poverty because they don't get a reasonable price for their work.
International companies demand rock bottom prices from the factories. In order to reach these demands, workers are paid a pittance and forced to work long hours in squalid conditions. Workers are frequently sacked for being sick or unable to turn up to work, and trade unions are banned.
When basic worker rights are asked for, the companies have often been known to move their operations to another location, perhaps another country which will provide them with goods at the low prices they demand.
There is also a complicated set of international trading laws and conditions which work to keep developing countries down. For example, the cotton farmers of Europe and American receive subsidies; this allows them to dump their surplus on the world market, which then pushes the prices down to below production costs for Developing World farmers.
Smaller producers in particular, are also disadvantaged by the long chain of buyers and sellers linking them to the buyer in the West. With each link taking their cut, the producer of a garment or product always ends up with the smallest wage.
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