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Fair Trade Advocacy Office

FTAO

The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) speaks out on behalf of the Fair Trade movement for Fair Trade and Trade Justice with the aim to improve the livelihoods of marginalised producers and workers in the South.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Revision of the EU competition rules on horizontal agreements

5 Jul 2021

The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) welcomes the steps taken by the European Commission (EC) to adapt current rules to the new challenges and to take better account of the need for guidance for sustainability initiatives. The FTAO invites the EC to take into account the following remarks in the revision of the Block Exemption Regulations for horizontal cooperation agreements (HBERs) and Horizontal Guidelines, to ensure that the revised texts (i) cover all sustainability initiatives, (ii) provide sufficient guidance to promote sustainability initiatives and (iii) contribute to other EU Policy initiatives. The Inception Impact Assessment on the Revision of the HEBER and the Horizontal Guidelines highlights that the revised rules are expected to have a positive environmental impact, but no impact on human rights nor direct social impact. The FTAO welcomes the steps taken by the Commission to improve guidance for agreements pursuing environmental sustainability, but fears that if the revised rules focus exclusively on environmental sustainability, and overlook the social dimension of sustainability they will not sufficiently promote Sustainable Development. The Agenda for Sustainable Development which was set up to “realize human rights of all”, integrates its goals in a way it “balances the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environment”. The FTAO stresses that the environment cannot be seen in isolation and is closely related to social issues. Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI’s) can play a role in achieving recognised policy goals, but such initiatives typically require cooperation, which can have an impact on procurement costs and/or sale prices. Horizontal agreements targeting positive impacts on society (e.g., waste reduction, decent work for all, the provision of living wages and living incomes upstream, etc.) often require cooperation among competing actors to be effective and allow for better allocation of their benefits. The objectives of the agreement may not be attainable by any of the actors acting unilaterally, nor in some cases by public authorities, since they might require taking action outside of the EU. By the same token, a company acting alone, may face a significant “first mover disadvantage” when deciding to take action in markets where customers are highly sensitive to price or where there is little scope for product differentiation. We call upon the EC to ensure that the revised texts provide sufficient guidance for all sustainability initiatives - and not only the environmental ones, so that competition law no longer acts as a deterrent. We kindly invite the EC to provide clear guidance on the conditions such initiatives would need to meet to comply with competition law. The revised text should allow companies wishing to engage in initiatives related to social fairness, for instance, to further achieve decent working conditions, to easily understand what they can and cannot do. They should also guide them on how to structure their initiatives to ensure they have no negative spill-over effects. Promoting the social dimension of the Sustainable Development Agenda, requires that the Guidelines include clear provisions on cooperation aimed at improving sustainability and other social goals. We would welcome if the EC could (i) provide guidance on the types of sustainability initiatives that do not restrict competition and fall outside of Article 101 TFEU, and (ii) acknowledge that sustainability goals – including both environmental and social goals – can generate benefits to consumers and outweigh potential competitive harm under Article 101(3) TFEU. Additionally, we call upon the EC to clarify the type of out of market efficiencies acceptable under Article 101(3) TFEU, in particular when a particular agreement benefits in part non-EU consumers (e.g. workers in a non-EU country).
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Response to Agriculture - List of products and substances authorised in organic production

23 Apr 2021

The Fair Trade Advocacy Office, which speaks on behalf of the global Fair Trade movement, would like to express the following views regarding this implementing regulation: Ethylene is needed for floral induction in commercial pineapple farming. Consequently, not being able to use it would imply that it would be impossible to produce organic pineapple for export to the EU (except that originating from Costa Rica). This would create a de-facto monopoly of organic pineapple for Costa Rica producers, which would be harmful for the sector and consumers alike. Equally concerning, developing countries have already put their hope and resources in switching to sustainable agriculture, of which organic production is a key component. Countries such as Ivory Coast and Togo have already increased or are planning to increase their pineapple production, which can potentially bring benefits to marginalised population and promote sustainable development, specially if the increase of organic production is significant. An increased share of organic production would not only result in more sustainable management of the soil, but also contribute to higher revenues for farmers. Forbidding organic pineapple producers from using ethylene for floral induction would jeopardize these countries' sustainable development. The Fair Trade Advocacy Office, on behalf of the global Fair Trade movement, calls on the EC to avoid adding additional any conditions in the organic regulation that would impose measures on the use of ethylene different from the horizontal regulation for the use of ethylene
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Response to EU strategy for sustainable textiles

1 Feb 2021

The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) welcomes this roadmap and invites the EC to take into account the following remarks: The EU has presented an ambitious program to deliver on the 2030 Agenda, within its borders and beyond. The Sustainable Development Goals are indivisible and balance three dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Any initiative that aims to boost sustainability can only be successful if it considers existing interlinkages by putting in place mutually reinforcing measures. The textile sector is no exception to this. The FTAO welcomes the EC commitment to tackle environmental and social adverse impacts by exploring “how to reinforce the protection of human rights, environmental duty of care and due diligence across value chains, including improving traceability and transparency”. This will require a smart mix of legislative and non-legislative measures. The FTAO considers that there is room for improvement to achieve a truly comprehensive strategy that places economic competitiveness, social fairness and environmental sustainability on equal footing. As recalled by the Council’s conclusions on Making the Recovery Circular and Green, we need to ensure a “just and socially-balanced implementation of the EGD policy objectives”. While the roadmap rightly acknowledges the problem of climate change and environmental issues, more attention should be given to specific social impacts in the EU and abroad. Given EU’s commitment to promoting decent working conditions worldwide (e.g., SWD Human rights and decent work in global supply chains) and considering that widespread human rights violations are well-known effects of multi-layered textile value chains, it seems reasonable to expect that the Strategy will explicitly recognize these as a major problem to tackle. The industry employs a large percentage of women, which are overrepresented in the most precarious positions, working for poverty wages. The COVID crisis has affected women in a disproportionate way, exposing them to economic vulnerabilities, social pressures and gender-based violence. In line with the EU Gender Action Plan, the integration of a gender-specific dimension in the Strategy should not be left aside. The FTAO notes with satisfaction that the Roadmap recognizes public procurement (PP) as a strategic tool to boost the EU market for sustainable and circular textiles. We invite the EC to stick to a systemic approach by setting targets for green, but also for fair and socially responsible PP. The EC shall pay particular attention to best practices and lessons learned from front-runner procurers and companies and promote convergence between fairness and circularity. The FTAO woold be glad to provide examples of it throughout the public consultation. The Roadmap regrets the uneven playing field faced by the EU industry due to lower environmental and social standards in third countries, and we urge the EC to consequently address the root causes of these down-graded standards. We are concerned that the prevalence of abusive purchasing practices in the sector is an obstacle for businesses who already privilege fair trading conditions and sustainability. The strategy shall address unfair purchasing practices, which have boomed during the COVID crisis. The roadmap rightly mentions the aim of “sustainable lifestyles”. The FTAO invites the EC to push the needle forward by assuming as a global goal a reduction of textile production and consumption. This shall be paired with measures to ensure that less is produced while value is more evenly distributed. This can be done by setting up transparency and traceability obligations to boost corporate responsibility and support unionization. The FTAO welcomes the reference to the ongoing process on HRDD. Given that the horizontal nature of the later might leave unaddressed sector-specific challenges, the Textile Strategy should aim to set its own binding guidelines built on existing OECD/UN ones.
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Response to Empowering the consumer for the green transition

1 Sept 2020

Thanks for the opportunity to give input. The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) is a joint Fair Trade movement political advocacy initiative. Our goal is to make Fair Trade the norm in supply chains. More information> www.fair-trade.website and www.fairtrade-advocacy.org General remarks ● EU Consumers not only lack reliable and relevant information on the environmental performance of articles. The EC should also include labour conditions of the workers and farmers upstream in its scope of action. ● A ‘single label’ approach is unlikely to practically and effectively address such complex realities, or satisfy ever-changing consumer preferences. We don’t support this option. ● Blacklisting certain ‘greenwashing’ terms is unlikely to be effective and there is a need to assess each claim on whether it is substantiated or not. We don’t support this option. ● In our view, the key problem is lack of transparency and unsubstantiated claims, including the proliferation of claims linked to in-house company sustainability programmes. All these range of claims should be included in scope. The objective should be to ensure that all claims have robust systems to back them up. ● The ISEAL Codes of Good Practice, should be used as a reference for what credible sustainability claims must be managed and substantiated. ISEAL code compliant members are independent organisations that manage their labels to provide reliable and robust information. ● We recommend the EC to commission a study and process to engage with stakeholders on how digitalisation can contribute as a leverage to provide more adequate sustainability information to consumers about how products have been produced and traded along the supply chain (for example through a QR code system). Textiles supply chain> urgent need for transparency • Given the high risk of human right abuses and the severe environmental impacts, the textile sector stands out as one in which these transparency requirements are more urgently needed. We welcome the announcement of a EU Comprehensive Textile Strategy and consider that it shall be coherent and interlinked with the initiative to empower the consumer. With respect to this strategy, we call on the EC to follow the approach of a coalition of over 70 Civil Society Organizations’ policy recommendations for a textile strategy (available from https://fairtrade-advocacy.org/our-work/eu-policies/textile) • Voluntary approaches on transparency do not suffice. We call on the Commission to grasp the opportunity of the Empowering the consumer legislative initiative to impose transparency obligations regarding factory sites and working conditions. • We call on the EC to study ways in which these transparency obligations can also include the upper tiers of the supply chain, including the origin of the raw materials and working conditions of the farmers who harvest them. We look forward to engaging with EC services on the above matters.
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Meeting with Diana Montero Melis (Cabinet of Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen)

24 Jun 2020 · introductory meeting on nutrition, social economy, human rights in partner countries - global value chains

Response to Evaluation of EU competition rules on horizontal agreements

2 Oct 2019

President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has committed in her political guidelines for the next EC 2019-2024 to strive for a stronger Europe in the world, in particular one which promotes not only free, but also fair and sustainable trade. The opportunity for the Commission to reflect these priorities arises soon, with the evaluation of EU Competition rules applying to agreements between competitors. Competition Policy plays an important role in shaping the EU’s economy and the action of our businesses and it shall be sensitive to the fact that sometimes it is not only competition, but also collaboration that fosters sustainability. Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) can indeed play a role in achieving recognised policy goals such as ensuring a living income for producers and workers in third countries, increasing animal welfare or increasing environmental standards. Business initiatives may contribute to achieving these goals, but these initiatives typically require cooperation with a possible impact on procurement costs and/or sale prices. A significant number of market actors believe that “collaboration is necessary to achieve key benefits for producers and consumers” (see attachment), but are deterred to engage in MSIs due to the lack of certainty regarding whether their co-operation initiatives are permissible and on how to shape them. The concern of EU citizens about the environment and the impact of their purchasing practices is a phenomenon which has been growing in momentum, while business is increasingly eager to take into account the impact of its actions on the environment and on society. In this regard, the "Beyond Chocolate“ Initiative is an example of the willingness to collaborate in pursuit of welfare-positive policies. However, the environment provided under this initiative by the Belgium Government is not replicable in every situation. Where direct State intervention is not possible, the appropriate conditions for the implementation of initiatives which create benefits for society should be facilitated by EU policymakers. The current Competition Law framework does not provide sufficient certainty to companies willing to co-operate to achieve environmental or social goals. The re-introduction into the Guidelines of a specific section on environmental agreements could provide more certainty; however, the mere re-introduction of a section on environmental-related agreements would not, in our view, be enough to ensure a coherent application of competition rules across the EU/EEA. Ensuring fairness across the value chain, and enabling horizontal agreements to address the issue of living wages and living income upstream, require that the Guidelines and Regulations need to include clear provisions on cooperation aimed at improving sustainable and social goals. The Fair Trade Advocacy Office highlights that competition rules applicable to horizontal agreements should take greater account of non-monetary values which can be benefit the EU consumer and, consequently, should be considered when evaluating the lawfulness of an agreement. As a consequence, the Fair Trade Advocacy Office would like to highlight the importance of amending the Regulations and Guidelines under evaluation. The European Commission should outline the framework for the evaluation of a range of non-price efficiencies which create broader benefits for consumers and citizens. This can enhance their coherence with the Political Guidelines of the Commission, as well as satisfying the objectives contained in the Treaties (in particular of the EU goals outlined in Article 3(5) of the Treaty on the European Union). In this way, the Regulations and Guidelines can also be rendered more relevant for companies that need clarity on the satisfaction of the conditions of Article 101(3) of the TFEU when engaging in a co-operation agreement aiming to foster fair value chains, or better social or environmental standards.
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Response to Stepping up EU Action against Deforestation and Forest Degradation

15 Jan 2019

We very much welcome the European Commission’s initiative to tackle the deforestation issue, and the related unsustainable production and trade of forest risk commodities. With regards to the problem analysis, we agree that the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are complex and multiple. We would like to highlight poverty as one of the major factors. Tackling poverty and small farmers incomes should be included in any initiative to address deforestation and forest degradation. In terms of actions, we welcome the attention to policy coherence. But we do not think that relying on existing policies and measures will be sufficient to achieve the ambitious targets and commitments that the EC has set: we believe that regulatory measures should be considered, such as mandatory human rights due diligence (HRDD) for buying companies, and import regulation of forest-risk commodities. For that, lessons learned from existing frameworks such as the EU Timber Regulation and the EU illegal (IUU) fishing regulation should be taken into account. HRDD models such as the French Devoir de Vigilance law, the UK Modern Slavery Act, the UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights, the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, and the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains.
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Meeting with Nils Behrndt (Cabinet of Vice-President Neven Mimica)

15 Oct 2018 · Future “development cooperation instrument” and Fair Trade - Public procurement of fair textiles

Meeting with Elisabetta Siracusa (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)

29 Mar 2017 · General agri issues

Meeting with Nils Behrndt (Cabinet of Vice-President Neven Mimica)

15 Mar 2017 · Benefits of fairtrade for producing communities

Meeting with Rolf Carsten Bermig (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska)

6 Mar 2017 · optimal landscape for EU framework action against UTPs

Meeting with Claes Bengtsson (Cabinet of Commissioner Margrethe Vestager)

13 Feb 2017 · EU Competition Policy & Sustainability

Meeting with Cecilia Malmström (Commissioner)

18 Jun 2015 · Fair trade

Meeting with Cecile Billaux (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström)

2 Mar 2015 · Fair trade initiatives

Meeting with Denis Cajo (Cabinet of Vice-President Neven Mimica)

23 Feb 2015 · Issues pertaining to expectations of Fair Trade movement from the new Commission in the area of development cooperation; fair trade in the post-2015 framework; EU Flagship Initiative in the garment sector; private sector and development.

Meeting with Cecile Billaux (Cabinet of Vice-President Cecilia Malmström)

4 Dec 2014 · Promoting Fair Trade