Fairtrade Fortnight
The final item of business this evening is a members' business debate on motion S2M-2387, in the name of Christine May, on Fairtrade fortnight. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I warn members that the debate will not be able to be extended because of the minister's and my commitments later on.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises that Fairtrade Fortnight will take place between 1 and 13 March 2005; supports this important series of events in raising awareness of the need to provide workers and producers in Third World countries with a better deal in return for their produce; congratulates the growing number of towns and organisations which have succeeded in achieving the Fairtrade mark; notes that more Fairtrade products are being bought by individuals and used within businesses, and encourages all MSPs and consumers to participate in these events which will help protect the livelihood of small farmers and producers who too often face exploitation.
I begin by thanking all the members—those who are here this evening and others in the Parliament—who have supported this motion. I remind the chamber of my declared interest as a member of the Co-operative Party and, less relevantly, as a member of East Fife Football Club's supporters trust, which is also a member of the Co-operative movement.
I remind members that it was the Co-operative movement, both retail and political, that pioneered the fair trade principle and went ahead with the policy when all the received food retailing economic wisdom counselled against it. Everybody said that the policy was mad. The fact that the movement was right to choose such a policy has been demonstrated not just by the fact that Co-op customers have shown in their droves that they care about the conditions of those faraway workers who produce their coffee and chocolate but, more important, by the fact that others in the same line of business—the other major supermarket chains and major multiples—have for some years now increasingly stocked fairly traded products because they know that their customers care about the ethics of food production and retailing.
I want to pay a special tribute to Oxfam. Among charities, Oxfam in particular has pioneered support for the producers of goods.
The make poverty history campaign—led by Hilary Benn and Gordon Brown, by Des McNulty in this Parliament and by others—is helping to accelerate the momentum behind fair trade as a means of giving genuine economic choice to producers in their own towns and villages: jobs, not aid, in practice.
No doubt, members have seen the figures this week showing that sales of Fairtrade-approved products in the United Kingdom rose by a staggering 52 per cent last year to £140 million. Coffee at £49 million was the biggest seller, followed by bananas, chocolate and tea. The list of products includes spices, oils and wine—which I know about. It also contains footballs—and colleagues on the Green party benches have had their pictures in the papers with some very strange people.
The finest sports commentator Scotland has to offer.
The finest sports commentator? That will be Mark Ballard himself, will it?
The booklet I have in my hand was produced by the Fairtrade Foundation. It explains succinctly what fair trade is about and what it does. I will quote from it.
"I am a member of the joint body which decides how to use the Fairtrade premium. We have used it to help get electricity for all workers' houses—my children can now study at night. Loans allow workers to start small businesses such as rearing cattle for their milk and growing vegetables to sell to local traders."
That is real economic sustainability. The quotation was from a tea plucker in Sri Lanka, and there are similar quotations from pineapple growers and others.
From the Oxfam website, I understand that "kuapa kokoo" is Ghanian for good cocoa farmer. Indeed, a cocoa plantation that has been given that name has started up a business that controls production of its chocolate in this country.
However, fair trade is not just about coffee and chocolate or about bananas or mangoes. The benefits of the huge increase in international trade flows over the past 20 years are very unequally shared. The 48 least-developed countries, which are home to about 10 per cent of the world's population, have only around 0.4 per cent of the world's exports. When commodity prices fall, millions of small-scale producers are forced into debt. It is then that poverty, disease and starvation are the norm.
It is important to have this debate in Fairtrade fortnight to highlight the real difference that we can make as consumers in the everyday choices that we make. We can buy fairly traded products. The Co-op obviously has the lead, but we should look at what has been done in small villages and towns around Scotland. I am thinking of Burntisland in Fife, which is in Marilyn Livingstone's constituency, and of the students whom I met yesterday with Linda Fabiani from the Scottish National Party. Those students come from towns that have made a conscious decision that a significant proportion of the goods that are sold in their area will be fair trade goods.
We can do a number of things: we can purchase fair trade products and educate our children about the importance of fair trade. Co-operative education policy plays a significant role in that respect. We can also encourage companies and organisations. Indeed, I hope that all members will encourage the Parliament and its catering contractors to increase the number of fair trade products that they purchase by demanding those products. We have the economic power. It is not for the Executive to demand fair trade products; it is for us—the individual consumer—to take that responsibility. We can organise events to publicise fair trade—I believe that a coffee morning is coming up about which members will be informed—and we can help our own communities to become fair trade towns.
Fair trade sales are increasing and recognition is increasingly being given to the value of fair trade to third-world and other economies. By organising and publicising events, all of us can help to play our part to eliminate world poverty, help to reduce debt and, most of all, give a decent and increasing quality of life to those whom we say every day of the week we want to help.
I am grateful to all members in the chamber tonight. I urge them to remember their individual responsibilities and buy fair trade.
The only fair way for me to work the debate is to restrict speeches to three minutes.
I thank Christine May for bringing the debate to Parliament. It is important that every year in Fairtrade fortnight we should have a debate about fair trade. A long time ago—I think it was three years ago—I sponsored a debate on fair trade when Strathaven, where I live, and Aberfeldy in my colleague John Swinney's constituency were declared Scotland's first fair trade towns. Both of us considered it an honour to speak in that debate.
Strathaven has gone from strength to strength since then. The small market town in Lanarkshire has become a model for other places in South Lanarkshire to follow. In fact, next week at the council offices, Hamilton—the biggest town in South Lanarkshire—will formally declare its fair trade status and receive its certificate. South Lanarkshire Council has not only done a lot in its council premises for fair trade, but has been a tower of strength to all groups in the area that want to promote fair trade.
Christine May mentioned that yesterday she met youngsters from primary schools in Strathaven and Avondale. One of the big strengths in Strathaven is the schools programme that we have instituted. We have seven primary schools and one academy in Strathaven and the surrounding area. I am very proud to announce that next week the Fairtrade Foundation will present Sandford Primary School with a special initiative certificate as Scotland's first fair trade school. [Applause.] I agree—that deserves a clap. Chapelton Primary School and Kirklandpark Primary School are close to achieving that status as well, and the other four primary schools are on the way. Some of the sixth year pupils at Strathaven Academy are determined that by the time they finish their exams and leave this year, it will have been declared the first fair trade secondary school in Scotland. A special initiative certificate was awarded because the Fairtrade Foundation had no criteria for fair trade schools. It had not got round to putting the criteria together, because the movement had grown so quickly that it had focused on keeping on top of towns, villages, councils and universities. It is a first for Strathaven that we have set the criteria for fair trade schools in the UK.
Fair trade is a priority. Raising awareness of fair trade is included in the national five-to-14 curriculum as a topic within environmental studies and citizenship. It is great that the schools in Strathaven have taken that on board. They have set up fair trade groups within all the schools, which include representation from pupils, staff and parents, and they run a fair trade tuck shop. Also, the schools will actively promote fair trade products in the provision of school meals, which ties in with what Christine May said about promoting fair trade in all public places.
Well done Strathaven, for blazing the trail yet again for Scotland and the UK.
I want to say a few words—which is probably all I will get to say—in support of Christine May's motion, which is timely and excellently written. It is important that we have this opportunity to follow on from our excellent debate on making poverty history. We may have to consider other forums in which to continue this important discussion.
Fair trade is part of the longer-term efforts that are needed to sustain the support that we should give to developing countries. We know that the matter is about choices that are made by Governments, councils and commercial companies, be they coffee shops or other businesses. It is about ethical choices that should be supported whether in business or in public service. Of course, we can all make individual choices about the produce that we buy, which is as important as collective action. We have all in the past made choices to boycott a product or to select a product. That is tonight's message.
We can capitalise on the popular demand for politicians and Government to do more. I have supported one of my local councillors, Irene Graham, and Ann McKechin MP in bringing about fair trade city status for Glasgow. The council has already passed a motion and the city is being assessed for fair trade status. Hopefully, we are well on the way to getting it. It encourages me as the MSP for part of the west end of Glasgow that in Hillhead library on a wet, cold night we brought out 50 people to sign up to the idea.
Many people will know Byres Road in my constituency as a hotbed of charity shops, coffee shops and, it must be said, estate agents. I believe that all of Byres Road should be fair trade; we are not too far away from that, although I am not saying that I have been in all the coffee shops on Byres Road to test them out.
For me, fair trade is about a wee bit more than just the Fairtrade mark. I am the proud owner of a bottle of Palestinian olive oil from the occupied territories, although I am not saying that my cooking will do it any justice. It must be recognised that in the occupied territories it is hard to get good produce out. In fairness to producers there, it is important to make people aware that they can buy their produce. It is important to buy it, because it will help Palestinian growers in the occupied territories. Collective and individual action are important. I say well done to Christine May for bringing the topic to the chamber.
I join others in congratulating Christine May on securing this debate. It is well timed, with this being the beginning of Fairtrade fortnight. I hope that it will bring further coverage to this important issue.
Fairtrade has existed for 10 years, and many fair trade products are available. In Mid Scotland and Fife, the town of Aberfeldy was, as Linda Fabiani said, the first fair trade town in Scotland—it gained that honour in 2002. I congratulate traders in Aberfeldy on their forward-thinking outlook. As one drives into Aberfeldy, one can see a new road sign that carries the international logo of the Fairtrade Foundation and the message "Scotland's First Fairtrade Town", which is excellent for marketing an area that is very much dependent on tourism.
Fairtrade fortnight is the one time of year when we are encouraged to buy fair trade coffee and other fairly priced products if we do not do so already. The movement, which was started to help producers in poorer countries get a fair deal, is an example of people leading Governments in trying to help human beings in other parts of the world. We saw that happen most recently in the response of individuals and charities throughout the world in giving help and aid to the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster. Governments, including ours, lagged behind the caring contributions of their citizens and then tried to play catch-up by offering large amounts of international aid. I hope, now that the tsunami disaster does not make the news every day, that Governments will stand by their pledges, just as the people have done.
The fair trade movement aims to give a higher standard of living to producers in poorer countries and a better deal for their hard work. Those are worthy intentions and I believe that people who buy fair trade products also do so with the best intentions. Consumers have a choice about what products we buy and at what price we buy them—that is called the marketplace. As Christine May said, consumers exercise choice and buy fair trade products because they know that more of their money will go directly to the producers. As a result, the market delivers success for fair trade producers.
I commend the Fairtrade mark for striving for fairer and more open trading conditions for all producers in the developing world. Fairer and open trading conditions are far better than protectionism, which we have in some cases. For example, the European Union is often guilty of creating barriers to trade with the developing world, which is extremely harmful to markets there. In choosing to protect our markets with huge subsidies through the common agricultural policy, the EU restricts market access for developing countries. Not only does that create an unfair non-level playing field, it forces developing countries to produce certain types of products that are not protected, such as coffee. Therefore, developing countries become overdependent on one or two products, which is extremely dangerous for them economically. It also means that production of the product outweighs demand, so that coffee and other items that are produced in developing countries are priced low and—because prices are dragged down—poverty is spread in other countries, such as Vietnam.
If we are serious about the issue, we must not simply buy fairly traded products, but campaign for fairer trade across the board. I am grateful to Christine May for giving us the opportunity to raise the issues.
I, too, congratulate Christine May on bringing the debate to Parliament. The unusually high number of members who are in the chamber for the debate is a tribute to her. I have been seized by fair trade ever since Mrs Watt, the wife of the Church of Scotland minister in Edderton, near my home, seized me at a church fête and asked me what I knew and was doing about fair trade. Like Christine May, I like a glass of wine, as members will know, and I can point out that fair trade cabernet sauvignon is of the highest quality.
Reference has been made to the multiples and supermarkets and to the lead that the Co-op has taken. Let us be honest: some companies do better than others in terms of the number of fair trade products that they offer. There are also issues about where fair trade products are positioned on the shelves in supermarkets. I would not go as far as to say that there should be a code of practice, but we should encourage the companies that are not doing as well to learn what can be done from the Co-op and others.
Fair trade footballs, as endorsed by the Green party, have been referred to. We should widen the definition of fair trade. I remember when Mike Pringle was talking about his plastic bag tax, he produced examples of hessian bags that were made in third world countries. We can broaden the definition to footballs and beyond.
Murdo Fraser rightly referred to protectionism. If we can, we must also balance in our minds the issues of globalisation. We must ask whether the spring onions and runner beans that are flown in from Kenya are fair trade. People in Kenya get jobs, but we must ask whether the profit goes to other industries in Kenya. We do not know about that and we must examine it. If my friend Richard Fraser, the minister of Greyfriars church, was with us today, he would instantly say, "That is great, I support it, but what are you doing about fair trade for British farmers?" In a way, globalisation offers an equally big threat to smaller producers in this country. Perhaps we can learn lessons from fair trade for our country.
I pay tribute to the church, which, with others, has played an important role in developing fair trade. I take great comfort from and have hope for young people. Just as the young today are great on environmental matters in a way that Murdo Fraser and I—or the older generation—probably were not, so they instinctively react well to the idea of fair trade. As has been said, the more our young people and our students talk about the concept, the more hopeful we can be that it will be developed in the future.
I must apologise for having to leave the debate early. I will not hear the minister's speech because I have to be the quizmaster for the Shelter quiz in about two minutes' time.
I, too, congratulate Christine May on providing the vehicle for tonight's debate.
There seems to be a big move towards towns and villages across Scotland declaring themselves to be fair trade towns and villages—Perthshire is no exception. Reference has already been made to Aberfeldy and I expect that my colleague John Swinney will want to say something about that. Not to be outdone, Perth and Kinross Council wants to make Perth itself a fair trade city. I say "city" rather than "town" because that is how we in Perth think of where we live. I welcome that move and have challenged the council to say that the whole of its area should become the first fair trade local authority in Scotland. Although the city councils have already made such a declaration, I will not count them because their areas do not include all the surrounding towns and villages. I want Perth and Kinross Council to do that—to extend fair trade status right across its huge area.
The debate in Perthshire has been prompted by the holding of the G8 summit there, about which we will hear more tomorrow. That is an example of how people are beginning to react to the issues that the summit raises. I listened with interest to what Murdo Fraser said, but I want to say how disappointed I was at the article in this morning's edition of The Scotsman that was written by a Conservative councillor. I very much hope that his views are not widely held in the Conservative party. He talks about fair trade producers having practices that are restrictive in comparison with those of their efficient, low-cost competitors. In his view, fair trade products are high cost because they are artificially protected. Of course, in his world "low cost" is a euphemism for paying people buttons and not getting too hung up on boring issues such as environmental regulations and workplace conditions.
When people opt for fair trade goods, they are making it clear that they believe that people should be paid a decent wage for the work that they do and that they should be able to expect to work in reasonable conditions that are not a threat to their health or that of the environment.
Fair trade tea and coffee are already widely available in the Parliament, but I do not think that we go nearly far enough. Some of the products that were on sale when we first moved into the new building seem to have disappeared. I wonder why that is. We need to ensure that both the cafeterias, the coffee bar and the members' restaurant all sell, display and draw attention to fair trade products. That is not happening at the moment. As MSPs we should take a lead, but the Executive should do so as well. Let us make Scotland the first fair trade country in the world.
I declare my interest as a member of the Co-operative Party and congratulate my Co-operative Party colleague Christine May on securing what is an important members' business debate.
In a world of unfair and unjust trade practices, it is vital that we all do what we can to promote a more equitable system of global trade. As a Co-op MSP, I am proud to be able to say that, over many years, my party and the Co-operative movement in general have been among the strongest and most effective supporters of fair trade initiatives and policies. The Co-op Party is adding its voice to this year's campaign. In the year of the holding of the G8 summit in Scotland and the make poverty history campaign, Fairtrade fortnight highlights the work that is being carried out by the fair trade movement as it plays its part in helping to build a world in which there is trade justice, unfair debt is dropped and more and better aid is targeted at countries in the developing world that are in desperate need.
I echo Roseanna Cunningham's words about the rather odd article that appeared in The Scotsman this morning, which seemed to be an admixture of the condescending and the economically illiterate. I was glad that Murdo Fraser did not go down the path of airing such views tonight. Fair trade is not impracticable or politically correct and it is not charity. It is a simple but effective means of trading that ensures that farmers get a fair deal and can begin to work their way out of poverty.
Last year, sales of fair trade products rose by more than half to reach a value of £140 million. As Christine May mentioned, Britain is the world's biggest market for fair trade products. The Fairtrade Foundation is rightly delighted with that growth rate. Fair trade products are high quality, sustainable and offer genuine value for money but, more important, the Fairtrade Foundation's standards include a fair and stable price being paid to farmers in developing countries.
I am certain that the view that was expressed by Hilary Benn recently that fair trade was making a real contribution to helping poor people help themselves out of poverty is correct. Fair trade is a guarantee of many of the standards that we all take for granted. Small-scale farmers receive a fair and guaranteed price, minimum health and safety standards are met, no child or forced labour can be used, all producers are free to join a trade union and there is a social premium. Those standards are well worth meeting.
I believe that we as MSPs should do all that we can to spread the fair trade message. On that basis, as Christine May said, the Co-op group in Parliament will be holding a fair trade coffee morning on Thursday 10 March, to which members and Parliament staff can come along and sample tea and coffee and talk about fair trade and its benefits.
Whatever we can do to publicise fair trade in our constituencies is vital; on 12 March I will co-host a coffee morning with Anne McKechin MP in Kelvindale Primary School in my Anniesland constituency to do just that. Fair trade should be part of the developed world's practical support for our brothers and sisters in the developing world. Let us spread the word.
I too congratulate Christine May. In the global economy, fair trade is a David against the multinational Goliaths. Despite the unevenness of that contest, however, we know who eventually won.
Let us sound a sombre note about supermarkets, which display a narrow range of fair trade products. It would be interesting to ask the major supermarkets to do an audit of their fair trade products and present it to the Scottish Parliament, to let us know whether they really buy into fair trade—if I may use that expression—or just indulge in gesture politics.
There is a degree of hypocrisy within the Parliament. My colleague Roseanna Cunningham referred to fair trade products that have disappeared from the Parliament. In an answer to Des McNulty in November last year, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body revealed that the only fair trade products on offer at the Parliament were tea, coffee and orange juice. The answer stated:
"The SPCB is committed to increasing the availability of fair trade products … and a Responsible Purchasing Initiative … will ensure fair trade issues are embedded in the way we procure goods and manage contracts."—[Official Report, Written Answers, 19 November 2004; S2W-12124.]
I feel a supplementary coming on. I wonder how far we have moved on, because fair trade products are certainly not on display in the canteen or other areas.
That degree of hypocrisy extends to the public. We are in a climate in which price is all and the supermarkets vie with each other to say, "You can get your products more cheaply here." We want people to consider how and why they are getting products more cheaply and what the cost of that is to third-world countries and to the people who are producing goods in sweatshops. How is it that chicken that comes to Scotland is so cheap, and in what conditions are the people who process it working? The labels on some of the cheap clothes that are sold in our supermarkets show that they are being produced in third-world countries. It is important for the public to check labels, not just for the Fairtrade logo, but to see where clothes are being made. Is somebody in some far-flung sweatshop earning buttons, as Roseanna Cunningham said, to produce something that, if it cost another two or three pounds, would allow them a decent wage?
Although I am delighted that we are having the debate, I sound a note of caution. I welcome the progress that is being made, but a great deal needs to be done so that David overcomes the Goliaths.
It is good that we are having the debate. Members have covered well many aspects of the fair trade movement, but I want to extend the debate into two other areas, which have been touched on a bit.
First, I turn to the many organisations that promote the sale in Britain of articles that have been made in a fair manner, often by co-operatives or other worthy organisations in developing countries. I am thinking of organisations such as Traidcraft, the Triodos Bank, which lends money to such organisations, Christian Aid and other religious charities and Oxfam and so on. Those organisations sell fair trade goods, which we should encourage people to buy. We should also see whether there is any way in which the organisations can co-operate more fully. We do not want a great bureaucratic system dominating the organisations but, if any joint effort would help to sell any of the goods that are made in a civilised manner at a reasonable cost and with a reasonable return to the communities, we should make that effort.
Secondly, we should all—individually and in our parties—put serious pressure on those who can influence the European Union. I am a Euro-enthusiast, but I think that the EU has fallen down badly in relation to its restrictive trade practices. To begin with, it was fair enough for the EU to have a system that supported its farmers so that, in countries such as France, Germany and Italy, small farmers would sign up to the enterprise. However, we have gone beyond that. We now have a restrictive system that penalises developing countries that want to export to Europe and subsidises EU exports in a way that demolishes certain local economies because we can undercut their prices. We have to apply serious political pressure to ensure that the EU gets its act together so that it behaves in a civilised way and represents the good side of Europe, not the bad.
I congratulate Christine May on securing a debate on this important subject and I congratulate everyone who is involved in promoting fair trade in Scotland during Fairtrade fortnight.
I started my Fairtrade fortnight at a birthday party celebrating the University of Edinburgh's first year as a fair trade university. I would like to congratulate the university and its students association, of which I am a life member, on all that they have done over the past year to promote fair trade to students in Edinburgh.
Christine May highlighted the two key reasons why we should all support fair trade. First, it makes a huge improvement to ordinary people's lives in the global south. Secondly, fair trade contains an implicit challenge. When we buy a fairly traded product, we recognise that there are unfairly traded products in the shops. As other members have outlined, people are moving to fair trade products because they want to know where the products that they buy come from, how they are made and what impact their manufacture has. That is why I have been supporting the campaign for fairly traded footballs. FIFA has minimum standards for footballs that guarantee that they are not produced by child labour, but a Fairtrade mark is a guarantee of much higher standards of the sort that Bill Butler alluded to in terms of working conditions, education and social benefit.
We have to recognise that the current world trade rules militate against those kinds of decent standards for workers in the global south. I was pleased to hear Murdo Fraser's version of the Conservative response to fair trade. It was a much more helpful one than the Edinburgh Conservative councillor's view that we read in The Scotsman today. We have to recognise that the world's trade rules are unfair. We need to ensure that there is trade justice.
Adam Smith warned of the danger of a market that is run in the interests of the merchants, rather than those of the producers and consumers. However, the situation that he warned of is what we have arrived at through our current set of world trade rules, which are managed by the World Trade Organisation overwhelmingly in the interests of multinational companies, not producers and consumers.
We have to reject the notion that comparative advantage can be generated by producing to lower labour and environmental standards. That is not a fair basis on which to operate a trade system. We need fair trade as part of the movement for trade justice, which is one of the key messages of the make poverty history campaign and is something that we should all support as the logical next step after supporting fair trade by buying fairly traded products in our towns, cities, Parliaments and universities.
I add my thanks to Christine May for bringing the debate to the chamber. I welcome Fairtrade fortnight and look forward to a fair trade future.
We must support and encourage the further development of fair trade. We need to understand what it means to choose a different brand of tea, coffee or banana. When one buys a fair trade banana, one knows that the people who harvested it are not going to give birth to babies without eyes or with green skin because they have been contaminated with dibromochloropropane, or DBCP, a pesticide that has been banned in the United States since 1977 but is used by US companies in Costa Rica. I am not sorry to bring that detailed note of hard realism to tonight's debate, to add to the previous words of caution. It is all too easy to overlook the reasons why it is essential to have fair trade. We need to encourage and to congratulate, but we must also underline the shocking consequences of unfair trade, which are all too easy for us and the media to forget.
Fair trade tea pickers in Sri Lanka no longer have to fear hunger and destitution as world prices fluctuate. Electricity is now supplied to their houses and their children are going to school. On the Stockholm tea estate they have bought an ambulance and computers. We, the consumers, do not have to fear the guilt of knowing that our basic commodities are bought at the cost of human misery.
Many people in Scotland have long realised the justice behind fair trade and those people deserve our congratulations and thanks. In the United Kingdom we have laws in place to protect us from contaminated food and short measures. Producers in other countries deserve the same protection and fair trade is one of the few methods of making sure that they are not short-changed. I commend the motion.
It is a pleasure to take part in the debate and I congratulate Christine May on securing this opportunity to raise an important issue that affects all of us in the communities that we represent.
At the heart of the debate about fair trade is a question that all of us have to answer—what can we contribute in our own lives and communities to assist with changing the inequalities that exist in our world? As a number of colleagues have mentioned, Aberfeldy in my constituency and Strathaven in my colleague Linda Fabiani's constituency have been designated Scotland's first fair trade towns. The community in Aberfeldy has worked together to make its contribution.
Beyond the work that individual communities can do, we must seek opportunities to add our political voice to stress how much more can be done to assist those efforts. Tonight's debate is a welcome opportunity to do that. During the remainder of 2005, we in Scotland have the unique opportunity of a number of events at which we can influence the political agenda to ensure that much greater progress is made on issues of international trade. The presidency of the G8 is held by the United Kingdom this year and the G8 summit will be held at Gleneagles in July. That, together with the UK presidency of the EU, provides an ideal opportunity for the Parliament to influence the UK Government's agenda and in turn the global agenda to try to make genuine progress on the issues.
If there was ever an example of how to take to a larger scale the straightforward, worthwhile and much-appreciated activities of communities to support fair trade development, it is for us as a Parliament to use our political influence to ensure that the agendas of the international activities in which the UK Government is involved address the concerns that we all share. I want to be fair to the UK Government; we all appreciate the effort that is going in to ensure that both the G8 summit and the UK presidency of the EU will be effective in addressing the issues. I hope that we will use our voice to ensure that the trade talks that will take place later this year, which the European and External Relations Committee discussed during its trip to Brussels in the past couple of days, are resolved in a way that makes a strategic difference to trade patterns and contributes to adjusting the inequalities in our world. Only by resolving those inequalities can we chart a course to achieve greater stability, greater co-operation and greater partnership and to make the world a much safer place than it is today.
From the sale of products in Aberfeldy, with stalls arranged by the fair trade movement, to the agenda of the G8 summit, we must use all our political influence to secure an outcome that makes the world a fairer and more equal place.
I thank all members for their co-operation.
I am happy to say that the Executive joins all the members who have spoken in supporting Christine May's motion, which calls on us to back the activities that are being undertaken as part of Fairtrade fortnight. With every other member, I congratulate the many towns—from Fairlie in my constituency to those in Fife—and all the cities, communities and organisations that will hold events in support of the campaign throughout Scotland in the coming fortnight.
I add the Executive's support for the campaign's main theme, which encourages everyone to check out fair trade—to consider the values and principles, of which members have spoken, that guide the Fairtrade Foundation and other ethical trading organisations and to look out for the rapidly increasing number of products that have been granted the Fairtrade mark. That development has been rapid in the extreme. In 2003, the Fairtrade Foundation granted its Fairtrade mark to about 150 products, as Christine May said. In 2005, more than 800 products are accredited. The range has grown from the coffee, tea, chocolate and bananas with which most people are familiar to an ever-widening variety of foods, as well as the other products that members have mentioned, including the fair trade footballs that Mark Ballard has championed.
Sales of fair trade products continue to grow. Their value was more than £140 million in 2004, which represents an increase of 51 per cent on the previous year and is no mean achievement by any standard. That is complemented by the sales from other fair trade and ethical trading initiatives. The situation leads the Fairtrade Foundation to calculate that Britain is the biggest fair trade market in the world. The Fairtrade Foundation has been a leading light throughout that development and I am sure that everyone joins me in congratulating it and acknowledging its contribution, which was recognised when it won the charity of the year award in 2004.
Members made a couple of points of substance about the EU. The UK Government contributes to the direction that the EU takes, which offers developing countries more generous preferential access to its markets. The 49 least-developed countries receive full duty-free and quota-free access to the European market under the everything-but-arms initiative and the tariffs that other developing countries pay to access the European market are heavily discounted. That has helped to develop sustainable industries in the developing world and to promote greater integration.
Jamie Stone is not present to hear my response to an important point that he made. The same free trade policy supports the idea of reaching the same destination at different speeds, which shows the sensitivity and flexibility that are necessary to let developing countries progress at a rate that allows simultaneous development of their social and economic infrastructures, so that they are not out of balance.
I subscribe entirely to John Swinney's words—2005 is shaping up to be a crucial period in the progress of the international development and world trade agenda, not least in his and Roseanna Cunningham's constituencies. The UK Government has been at the forefront of activity to encourage progress in World Trade Organisation negotiations and the drive to secure the Doha principles, with the ambition of making solid improvements at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong at the end of the year. As John Swinney said, the UK presidencies of the EU and the G8 will provide gold-plated opportunities for the UK to put trade, international development, debt relief and aid provision at the centre of the international agenda. As the First Minister has emphasised, we in the Parliament must do all that we can to support the UK Government to host a successful G8 summit that has the potential to provide sustainable, long-term benefit for the developing world.
Fair trade is a good example of how every individual, organisation and community can take action in their own way to encourage a change for the better in the patterns of global support. In that spirit, I restate the Executive's support for Christine May's motion. In response to Roseanna Cunningham's point, I can say that Patricia Ferguson, who takes a leading role in this matter in the Executive, tells me that the Executive is keen to explore the possibility of Scotland becoming a fair trade country. As simple parliamentarians, perhaps we should be making the same demands of this institution.
Meeting closed at 17:51.