Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-06-Speech-4-039"
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"en.20060706.4.4-039"2
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".
Madam President, I would like straightaway to thank Mr Schmidt for this report and for drawing attention to my increasingly conspicuous consumption habits, which, I am afraid, are becoming only too obvious as I grow into this job as Europe’s Trade Commissioner. Sincerely and warmly I would like to thank him for this report, which I think is very valuable and will be well received.
We need a complete and public solution – one that should not be confined, therefore, to Fair Trade only. As the report rightly points out, there are other non-Fair Trade operators that can achieve similar results to those obtained by Fair Traders, that have the same growth potential and that can influence consumer choice and the international trading schemes. We should fully use the potential of all credible initiatives to support sustainability. That should be our test. Does it help, does it aid, does it take forward sustainability? If it does, that should govern our response and attitude to it.
Building on commitments taken previously, we want to explore with our partners the use of economic partnership agreements with the ACP countries, as well as other trade agreements, for including specific incentives targeted at improving market access for fair trade products. That is where I believe we can leverage our interest and leverage our commitment most beneficially.
It is very useful, therefore, that the report points to the danger of inappropriate national legislation in the field of Fair Trade. I am aware of some initiatives being taken that might harm the status that Fair Trade has already achieved. We need to be vigilant about these and to see, therefore, whether it is not better to take a more coherent and collective approach in order to leverage the greatest benefits for Fair Trade.
Conversely, too firm an adhesion to the particular approach embodied in Fair Trade would be at risk of being discriminatory against other systems, some of them acknowledged in your report, which have similar claims and that we can and should support.
You are right about the need to protect consumers, the question is how. I believe the role of policy is to ensure that messages given to consumers are accurate and transparent, and I am glad that this is also stressed in the report. We already have protection against misleading claims, but we might consider going further and help engage the consumer actively in the ethics of production.
I believe that there is scope for better information about claims schemes in general, and work is in progress on this. I will ask my services to look at how sustainability is enhanced by different certification and assurance schemes, including Fair Trade.
We will look at all the suggestions made in this report and of course keep Parliament informed of further developments. We need a dialogue with Parliament on a continuing basis. I am glad, therefore, that this report provides the framework, both for this dialogue and for the way in which we can, should and will take our commitment in this area further forward.
In conclusion I would like to thank the rapporteur again for the quality of this report.
Fair Trade is one of the key tools, in my view, to enhance sustainable development and to equip us better to fight poverty in the world, and as a concept it is developing fast. It is undoubtedly a very popular trade practice. It is gaining in currency and appeal with public opinion, and helps to raise public awareness about all the issues that are involved in sustainability.
You are not just undertaking an act of consumption that is good in terms of the content of what you consume. It is also a stimulus to the brain. It makes you think and therefore it is even more valuable. Consumers do take into account considerations about the conditions of production. People care, they do not just eat, and Fair Trade has pioneered this in a most attractive way.
The Commission actively supports Fair Trade. We took on commitments to Fair Trade in the Cotonou Agreement with the ACP countries, as well as in our communication on policy coherence for development.
Many trade and development assistance projects support Fair Trade: development projects to the tune of over EUR 4 million in 2003, and growing. These consist mainly of support for NGO activities, but also of direct aid to the harmonisation of standards at work. We also participate in Fair Trade events.
One could argue that whilst Fair Trade helps salve the conscience of those who buy such products, others continue, nonetheless, to exploit the needy. I am not happy about that argument: Fair Trade is not a panacea for all the problems of poor producers, nor does it necessarily mean that because you are not buying and consuming Fair Trade products you are exploiting the poor.
What is required to tackle poverty and to enhance development is a general and coherent policy framework. It is this that we need to develop, to conceptualise, and this report will help us to do so.
Fair Trade is private and limited to the participating producers, while the UN Millennium Development Goals are for all. So Fair Trade is particular and specific, the Millennium Development Goals are general and wide-ranging; but there is a clear interconnection between the two. The objective is different for an individual and for EU policy-making.
An individual makes a personal choice. He or she is entitled to exercise that choice. You cannot automatically translate that into a more wide-ranging policy. The individual consumer looks at one packet of coffee, rightly. Policy-makers, on the other hand, have to take into account the sector as a whole and our obligations to that sector as a whole."@en1
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