FAIR TRADE, the name given in 1881 in Great Britain to a movement to protect industry from foreign competition by means of import duties. The term "fair trade" was coined to express the conception that free trade was unfair unless reciprocal, and that Great Britain should not admit duty free goods imported from countries which denied free trade to British exports. The boom in British trade of the preceding decade having been followed by a period of acute depression and unemployment, a fair trade league was formed in 188i. (See PROTECTION ; TARIFFS.) In the U.S.A. the term "fair trade" is associated with the pro visions and amendments of the Federal Trade Commission Act by which this independent agency of the Government seeks to prevent unfair methods of competition and deceptive practices in interstate trade. (See FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION; BUSINESS CODES.)