In January 1994, the European Parliament adopted a report and a resolution promoting fairness and solidarity in North-South trade. The report recommends measures to strengthen and support the fair trade movement and to adopt the fair trade principles in policies of the European Union and its Member States. The European fair trade movement considers this as an important acknowledgement of its almost 30 years of fair trading and campaigning.
 

"As a follow-up of this 1994 resolution another resolution was adopted by the European Parliament in 1998 on Fair Trade, the so called Fassa resolution, and as a follow-up of this resolution the European Commission issued a communication on Fair Trade at the end of 1999. Unfortunately it was not the sort of communication that the Fair Trade movement was hoping for (with concrete proposals on how the European Commission can support Fair Trade) but sort of a descriptive document on Fair Trade. But nevertheless it is a great achievement that the European Commission issued a document on Fair Trade. Moreover, Fair Trade is now mentioned as a priority area of funding within the general conditions of DG8 (the directorate general that funds development cooperation within the European Commission)."
(Ellen Oomen, General Coordinator - eunews@worldonline.nl - http://www.worldshops.org)

IP/99/937
Brussels, 2 December 1999
Commission adopts Communication on "Fair trade"

The European Commission has adopted a Communication on fair trade. Fair trade touches many areas of Commission activities from development policy, general aspects of trade, the environment and employees’ rights through to consumer choice and assurances on label claims. It is the first step in the process of defining new Commission policy. This document is intended to encourage a debate between all interested parties and stakeholders so as to enlighten the Commission in the designation of an appropriate and relevant European Union (EU) policy for the next century. It provides a consolidation of what is understood by fair trade, how it operates in general and outlines existing Commission activities in support of fair trade. While proposals are not given at this stage, it gives an indication of issues to be addressed when considering further EU support of fair trade activities. This is a timely document on the eve of the new Millennium Round of trade talks where the EU hopes to include discussion on social and environmental issues. 

What is fair trade?

The fair trade concept has been developing in western nations throughout the past 40 years or so, in response to a growing recognition that benefits accruing from trading and trade growth are not necessarily shared by all countries and all layers of the population within each country in a comparable manner.

Fair trade is a complement to conventional international trade. It aims to benefit marginalised producers and communities in less developed countries by providing sustainable development through improved trading conditions.

Areas covered by the Communication

The Communication gives a broad description of the development of fair trade and how it works in practice. It then details both the commercial and policy activities within the European Union (EU). 

For the first time, the document also brings together all of the current EU activities in support of fair trade, both financial and legislative. In fact, the EU is the first trading entity to introduce legislation in the broad area of fair trade. Under the EU’s scheme for generalised tariff preferences (GSP) those countries which demonstrate the application of certain minimum social and environmental standards may benefit from reduced tariffs when selling to Europe. 

Finally, the Communication details the issues to be taken into account when considering further EU support for fair trade activities. These issues include: the development of fair trade, the fact that there is no legal definition of fair trade, fair trade criteria and monitoring, consumer protection, WTO compatibility of any fair trade initiatives, and the establishment of a formal platform for dialogue with the fair trade movement. 

Background

In June 1998 the Commission gave an undertaking to provide a Communication on fair trade. This undertaking was originally linked to the (1998) reform of the Common Market Organisation for bananas. However, in preparing the Communication it was apparent that there were many Commission activities linked to fair trade and that fair trade bananas could not be treated in isolation. A thorough review of the subject was therefore carried out. The Communication also responds to the Parliament report on fair trade (Fassa report).

(Ellen Oomen, General Coordinator - eunews@worldonline.nl - http://www.worldshops.org)

EU Commissioner Lamy: "Textiles trade must be a two-way street"

The European industry has made large investments and strenuous efforts to improve its efficiency, quality, creativity and competitiveness. All the EU import quotas are being increased every year and will disappear totally in 2005. But we have failed to see significant steps to liberalise imports on the side of the Europe's largest exporters of textiles and clothing. This situation is not sustainable: "We have to achieve a level playing field for textiles and clothing trade world-wide. Textiles trade must be a two-way street", EU-Trade-Commissioner Lamy declared after a Round Table held with Europe's Textiles and Clothing industry representatives on 14 April 2000.

The Commission is telling its trading partners that, if they are really interested in improved access to the EU textiles and clothing markets, they should be ready to offer in their turn liberalisation to their markets, Lamy added. The Commission is examining a package to be presented to EU Member States in the next few months.

To read more about EU's textiles trade please go to: http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/goods/textile/whatson.htm

(from IFAT UPDATE NO 8 OF 20 APRIL 2000)