Retailers are working on a broader agreement that "more brands are likely to sign up for, " said Peter McAllister, director of the London-based group Ethical Trade Initiative, who attended the meeting.

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It monitors the use of the death penalty and the illegal arms trade, and is available as a guide for UK businesses to see which countries it is ethical to trade with.

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Or are the points, so well articulated by Mr. Grant, ethically acceptable trade-offs in a world of ethical triage?

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The company ethos ticks the policy boxes for liberal consumers: it stocks Fair Trade products, is recognized as an ethical employer by Etisphere, and holds Cup Summits each year to address recycling solutions.

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Government critics say that ethical considerations have been ditched in the interests of protecting the British arms trade, one of the country's largest employers.

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The notion of ethical investing goes back at least to 1758, when the Quakers banned profiting from the slave trade.

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