The Fairtrade Foundation's Response To Final Communiqué of The G8
8 July 2006
Today, G8 leaders at Gleneagles formally acknowledged the growing success of the global fair trade movement in their final communiqué, by saying they will
“welcome the growing market for fair trade goods and their positive effect in supporting livelihoods and increasing public awareness of the positive role of trade in development.” In response, Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said:
“World leaders have recognised the growing success of the global Fairtrade movement and the lead taken by consumers and producers in creating managed trade that works positively for producers in developing countries - but Fairtrade also stands for wider trade justice and on this we are bitterly disappointed.
“Farmers in Africa and other developing countries could be doing so much more to make poverty history for themselves if the terms of world trade were not so heavily stacked against them. The huge success of Fairtrade in the UK, other European countries, and increasingly, other parts of the world, has shown that consumers in the West do want trade justice and they want their Governments to make world trade rules fairer.
“However, the G8 have not met the challenge of trade justice this week. Whilst there is language in the G8 communiqué about the need of developing countries to choose their own economic policies, this is not being matched with a change of policy in the actual negotiations ongoing in the EU and at the WTO, where trade liberalization demands are still being made of developing countries. G8 leaders have not agreed to eliminate export subsidies and dumping by 2010, one of the core demands of the MakePovertyHistory campaign. The gap between rhetoric and reality therefore remains as wide as that between rich and poor.
“We want to see action to deliver changes to the international trading system at the EU and WTO negotiations. With our partners in the Trade Justice Movement and MakePovertyHistory, we will be continuing our campaign for trade justice through the UK presidency of the EU and the preparations for the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong at the end of the year.”
The Foundation points to the contrast between the Fairtrade model which concentrates on managing trade and supply chains in order to achieve social development for disadvantaged producers in developing countries, and global trade policies which continue to force liberalisation of services and agriculture upon these same countries, often with devastating impacts on the livelihoods of local people. The growth of Fairtrade has created new opportunities for farmers to improve their livelihoods and increased investment in Fairtrade is needed. But at the same time developing country domestic markets are being eroded and global prices distorted by the continued subsidies and dumping of these same products.
As a founding member of the Trade Justice Movement and Make Poverty History, the Fairtrade Foundation believes that both the scale of public concern and the dramatic growth in sales of Fairtrade products are sending a strong message to governments to put trade justice at the heart of trade negotiations and policies.
For more information, or to interview a spokesperson of the Fairtrade Foundation, contact Martine Julseth on 020 7440 7695 or 07770 957451. At Gleneagles media centre on 8 July, contact Barbara Crowther on 07971 223771.
Notes to Editors
About Fairtrade:
- Globally, an estimated 5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – are already benefiting from the Fairtrade system. Fairtrade is currently working in 58 developing countries, with 464 producer organizations and 515 registered traders who commit to agreed trading standards (including payment of minimum Fairtrade prices and social premiums) and independent audit of sales.
- Africa is the fastest growing region within the Fairtrade network with approximately 124 producers organisations currently certified to Fairtrade standards. The range of products African producers are bringing to UK markets includes tea, coffee, wine, cocoa, honey, nuts and fruits. Much of the work in expanding this work has been made possible with grants from the UK Department for International Development and Comic Relief. (see policy document Fairtrade Supporting Farmers to Make Poverty History for a full list of 20 African countries and other supplementary information).
- Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) has members, and therefore markets for Fairtrade products, in 20 countries including 7 of the G8 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA. The figure for overall international sales of Fairtrade products in 2004 is estimated to be in excess of €800m, and sales are growing by approximately 50% per year.
- The Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member of FLO, awarding the independent consumer label the FAIRTRADE Mark to products that meet internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. There are now over 900 Fairtrade certified retail and catering products in the UK alone and a MORI poll conducted in May 2005 showed that one in two adults in the UK recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark.
- In the UK, sales of products with the FAIRTRADE Mark, which reached £140m in 2004*, are doubling every two years.
Fairtrade at the G8
- This week, G8 leaders, delegates and journalists at Gleneagles have been served Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar and bananas, and received gifts of Fairtrade chocolate. Products have been sourced from producer organisations in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Ghana that are certified to internationally agreed Fairtrade standards.
- Following a recommendation by the Commission for Africa on the need for increased investment to expand opportunities for developing country producers to enter Fairtrade markets, The Fairtrade Foundation and its sister organisations across Europe have submitted a funding proposal to the G8.
- Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 2002: “On my recent visit to Africa I spoke of the need to build a new partnership between developing countries and the developed world. Fairtrade provides an inspiring example of such partnership. On my visit, I had the privilege of visiting cocoa farmers in Ghana, and saw for myself how Fairtrade in cocoa is increasing incomes and empowering local producers operating in global markets.”
Fairtrade and MakePovertyHistory
- The Fairtrade Foundation is a member of the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY campaign which brings together a wide cross section of over 500 organisations - charities, campaigns, trade unions, faith groups and celebrities - set up to press the government for global change on trade, aid and debt. The members are united by a common belief that this year offers an unprecedented opportunity for the UK to press for that global change.
- Specific demands to the G8 from the Make Poverty History campaign on trade are:
• Stop forced liberalization at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), allow developing countries to protect key sectors important for their development interests and support binding Special and Differential Treatment for all developing countries.
• Commit to not negotiate bilateral and regional trade agreements that require developing countries to go beyond commitments made in the WTO
• Eliminate agricultural export support and all trade distorting support to agriculture by 2010 and ensure that no agricultural exports are dumped on the markets of developing countries
• Commit to ensure that global trade policies and practices do not undercut internationally agreed social and environmental standards, in particular core labour standards.
• Pledge to work with other UN members to establish binding internationally agreed rules for corporate accountability.
Trade Facts:
- Trade liberalization has cost sub-Saharan Africa $272 billion over the last 20 yrs roughly the same as it has received in aid
- US government pay $1.3bn is subsidies to support rice production which costs $1.8bn to grow – effectively paying 72% of the cost of production. They then dump 4.7m tones at 34% of the production costs
- West African cotton producers (in 00/01) achieve 30% of the world price compared to US farmers who get 170% of the world price.
- In 2000, Ghana lost US$43 through trade liberalization for every one of its 20 million people. In the same year, Ghana received aid worth just US$31 per person.
* Estimated retail value, calculated from actual wholesale value
The Fairtrade Foundation,
Room 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens,
London EC1N 7RJ.
Tel: 020 7405 5942
Fax: 020 7405 5943
Web: www.fairtrade.org.uk