FTIS 2008 (Fair Trade International Symposium)

Round Table 1: From Fair Trade to fairness in trade: appraisal and perspectives

Christophe Alliot (FLO) and Christine Gent (IFAT) highlighted the need to act on the most important fields in order to give fair trade greater political weight, an issue raised by each of these two organisations in their recent strategic reviews.

This idea was supported by Pascal Liu, an economist from the FAO, who, moreover, underlined the role of NGOs in awareness-raising among consumers, businesses and above all, the authorities. He also suggests opening dialogue with the governments of developing countries, who up until now have shown little interest in fair trade due to its relatively marginal influence.

Santiago Paz (Norandino, Peru) warned of the risk of side effects: the desire for growth in the fair trade sector may lead certifiers and international cooperation to strike up partnerships with big companies, to the detriment of small producers’ organisations.

See the video of the round table ronde : Video round table 1

Round Table 2: What is the role of actors from the South in the fair trade project?

The main concern of Sisaliao Svengsuksa (Association Lao Farmers Products, Batieng Products, Laos) and Hanane Lachehab (GIE Femmes du Rif, Morocco), is the development of new outlets to support their initiatives. More specifically, they raised two issues: the problem of competition between organizations within the same industry and the need to extend the ranges.

Furthermore, Ciprian Mayorga (Anapqui, Bolivia), quinoa producer in the Andes, broached the subject of specifications which are poorly adapted to certain situations: the criteria imposed by the specifications are sometimes too rigid in certain aspects, whereas they do not include criteria ensuring soil preservation, thus endangering the sustainability of the fair trade approach.

On the other hand, representatives of networks working on fair trade in the South (Abdourhamane Gueye - ENDA Senegal, Geraldine Labradores - IFAT Asia, Fabiola Zerbini - FACES Brazil, Dr. Shyam S Sharma – Fair Trade Forum India) presented the major progress made in national and regional initiatives, underlining the emerging forms of South-South fair trade. They requested that their actions receive greater recognition in international proceedings.

See the video of the round table : Video round table 2