Question ?As consumers we all have power. Does this power come with responsibilities? Response As consumers we all have power. And with this power comes with responsibilities. So in this essay I will discuss our role as consumers, the relationship between international trade and poverty, the people who make our products and the conditions these are made in, and also alternative trading models such as trade aid. As consumers there come responsibilities. We play a big role in the markets because if we, as consumers, didn’t buy any of the products being sold on the market, then there wouldn't be a market. So there is what is called, a reciprocal relationship between consumers as a whole and the market. This means that they rely on each other and therefore wouldn't work without each other. We also have a social responsibility to not only buy the cheapest products, but to buy the ones that are the most ethically fair. This means that when we are looking at buying goods, we should understand what we are buying and how it has been made or look for the fair trade symbol. The symbol tells us that the trading supports the growers and seeks social and environmental justice. So we need to know what we are buying and understand, for example, that the product may have been manufactured in a sweatshop where the workers work in poor conditions, in overtime shifts, long hours and get paid barely enough to survive. Therefore as consumers we have power to choose what we buy and how it has been made. This leads me onto my next point where I will link the two ideas of international trade and poverty. International trade can reduce poverty, but only if the poor countries have; things to trade, education and work skills, roads and infrastructure to transport goods, markets in which to sell their goods and finance to support export efforts. I believe that international trade is the best and most efficient way for an underdeveloped country to get out of the poverty trap. Because the potential gains from trade are far greater than the gains from international aid, for example, w