Youve eaten the bananas and drunk the coffee: now wear the clothes
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By Daniel Nelson
A blow against one of the starkest examples of rigged rules in world trade was claimed by the Fairtrade Foundation in London yesterday when it launched its cotton certification scheme. For the first time the FAIRTRADE mark will be carried by cotton-made goods in Britain. By next January, said Foundation Director Harriet Lamb, shoppers will be able to select from 260 lines, including T-shirts, trousers, dresses, hoodies and sheets. (Fairtrade certified cotton goods are already on sale in Belgium, France and Switzerland.) She expects other high street suppliers to join the initial 10 companies, which are using cotton from India, Mali, Peru and Senegal. The Foundation says up to 100 million rural households are involved in cotton production around the world and that millions of small-scale farmers have been suffering from years of falling prices. Today we are setting a whole new pattern for international trade one that puts cotton farmers first, not last, Lamb told the launch. For too long cotton farmers have been invisible at the end of long supply chains and at the sharp end of injustice in international trade, and that has to change. Under the scheme, farmers will receive a guaranteed minimum price, plus a premium to use in social or business development projects. For consumers, the message was also clear: Grab this chance and make a difference, urged George Alagiah, patron of the Foundation. You are about to change the lives of thousands of people. Several speakers at the launch condemned the huge subsidies paid to US and European growers, which were described as a key factor in keeping world prices low. US producers received about $4.2 billion in subsidies last year equivalent to the total value of the crop. Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, urged Washington to act now on the World Trade Organizations ruling against US subsidies, issued over 18 months ago. Benns department funds the Foundations work on new product development, which has included bringing certified cotton to the UK market. Sales of Fairtrade products in Britain last year totalled £140 million, up 51 per cent on the previous year. Fairtrade Foundation * Cotton products |
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