Proposition 54K2496

Proposition de résolution visant à promouvoir le commerce équitable et la campagne "Faites de la Belgique le pays du commerce équitable".

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Els Van Hoof
Ecolo Muriel Gerkens
Groen Anne Dedry
LE Georges Dallemagne
MR Benoît Piedboeuf
PS | SP Gwenaëlle Grovonius
Vooruit Fatma Pehlivan

Submission date

May 31, 2017

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

public awareness campaign sustainable development fair trade resolution of parliament

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP DéFI ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR PVDA | PTB PP

Abstained from voting

VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

July 19, 2017 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

The rapporteurs are Mr Miller and Mrs Capoen.

I am referring to our written report.

Mr. Speaker, my dear colleagues, this proposal aims to support the campaign "Make Belgium the country of fair trade", in resonance with the informal parliamentary group dedicated to this subject, which we have established here.

This text, whose vocation is to gather consensus, invites the various public authorities, citizens, but also associations, policy makers, the horeca sector, ⁇ in general, schools, etc., to reserve fair trade the place it deserves, to participate in the campaign and to ensure that, by 2020, Belgium truly becomes the country of fair trade.

I would like to thank my colleagues, both in the majority and in the opposition, who co-signed this proposal and helped to carry out constructive work in the committee. It is essential that the House does not merely address requests to the government. It is also their responsibility to take concrete initiatives. (Brouhaha) by

It is essential that the Chamber can be an example. In fact, fair trade as well as the “local and sustainable consumption” must not merely remain slogans or communication strikes. On the contrary, this goal must constitute a choice of society, a political choice too – including in the daily life of our institutions. If, from time to time, we can save energy, why not!

I think we can go further in everyday life, within the framework of our public institutions. That is why, as the chairman of this parliamentary group, I wanted to relay, at the level of our assembly, the interest of our fellow citizens with regard to ethical consumption.

Many public authorities give credible signs of their willingness to use trade as a lever for development and reduction of inequalities. For example, in Belgium, almost 200 municipalities have already received the title of fair trade municipality.

As a member of Parliament, I have therefore asked the Federal Parliament to be an example and to increase its consumption of fair and local products. The aim is that, in the upcoming public procurement calls for catering, fair and sustainable variants of as many products as possible can be taken into account. In addition to fair products, we also ask the Federal Parliament to prioritize the purchase of local and sustainable products, i.e. products from short circuit chains, thus prioritizing fair remuneration to producers.

The fair breakfast organized, every year, in the peristyle is a success but it is about this initiative to become the norm between our walls. The Chamber’s governance committee has already been open to the issue and has made decisions concerning, in particular, certain juices, coffee, tea or some wines or soda that are offered to us. These requests were also relayed by my group within the Working Group responsible for Political Renewal. They are now included in the consensus points and are therefore awaiting transposition into facts. This is point 59.

I am convinced that this choice must be made by political coherence. Of course, this is not about putting our northern and southern companies into competition. not at all. It is, on the other hand, to ensure that our economic exchanges are fair, that they do not maintain or amplify inequalities, poverty or even conflicts, these same problems that we condemn through parliamentary resolutions, especially the one we talked about earlier.

It is not free trade that should become the rule, but fair trade.

This text therefore aims to bring an additional stone to a complex building, to make Belgium the country of fair trade and short circuits with a series of numbered objectives.

Fair trade and local trade are gaining in popularity every year. The House must therefore be part of this approach and even be a lance iron of it.

I am therefore very happy that this resolution is presented to us today and that we have been able to obtain a large majority to vote on this text.

Thank you all for your attention and support.

Mr. Speaker, it is a surprise that I am on the speaker list, but I would like to take the floor.

Of course, the CD&V faction supports this resolution and this for several reasons. There will be a maximum number of players involved and in public procurement procurements priority will be given to products that precede the criteria of fair trade.

They also advocate for the short chain, which is also quite new, and for the purchase of clothing that should be produced socially responsible.

The most important thing is that coherence between the different levels of governance must be sought. It is no secret that several governments have already tried to fulfill the concept of fair trade, trade equitable, fair trade. In different languages, something is understood differently.

It is important to create clarity, especially for the consumer who has been confused in recent years by the different labels that have seen the daylight. With the labels ethical, bio, fair trade and social responsibility, one tries to persuade the consumer to buy a specific product, while he does not clearly know what it means.

The key element of this resolution and the biggest challenge is the search for criteria and coherence across the different levels of governance. This is an important challenge and it is good that we ask Parliament to make it clear and we hope we can reach a legal arrangement in the future.

We fully support this resolution.

Without fair trade, trade in which producers are properly paid for their products and labour, it is impossible to increase the wealth in the world and reduce inequality. Without an increase in wealth and a decrease in inequality, there can be no real impact on the world’s major challenges, namely poverty, discrimination against women and minorities, refugee flows and climate change.

As a wealthy society, it is our moral duty to give other societies the opportunity to become prosperous and to give them the support they need to ⁇ that prosperity.

In the long run, fair trade should no longer be a separate form of trade. All trade must become fair trade. The government and administration at all levels – Mrs Van Hoof has already talked about it, there are still problems there – should actually play a leading role in this resolution. This pioneering role consists in ensuring that their purchases comply as far as possible with the principles of fair and sustainable trade, as well as in coordinating and reinforcing existing and future initiatives of this kind. This will also be necessary to increase the Belgian commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, which has so far remained undermeasurable.

This resolution is a good step in this regard. My group will support them with full conviction.

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, when I became a member of Parliament in 1999, we started working on fair trade products. Several of you were with me at that time and discovered at the cafeteria the arrival of coffee, juice, chocolate and bananas, in short, products from fair trade. We also started working within Parliament on definitions. One wondered if it would not be interesting to include in the law what is a product from fair trade, to introduce in provisions relating to public procurement clauses and criteria allowing to choose these fair products in such a way that they do not systematically lose markets because, if the only criterion is the lowest price, necessarily, our "fair" coffee did not win the markets.

Then we went into the flour. The “on” is collective: the Chambers’ services and the quarter were confronted with public procurements that were not well registered or well-written and whose criteria were not clear enough. As a result, we found ourselves with products that were not from fair trade but their names were similar.

It is true, Mrs. Van Hoof, that, until 2010–2012, we worked on redefining without ever leading to solutions, to a common text adopted within Parliament. I am obviously pleased that we are coming back with an intention to find definitions and criteria to guarantee us access to these products and that public bodies, including the House, are committed to use these products again for what they represent.

Do not make the same mistakes as in the past. We have the matter and things have evolved since.

Now, one can no longer engage without going to the act and licking the car again. I see the work of this informal group. We have had the opportunity, on several occasions, to meet with actors of NGOs, actors of fair trade. We also started thinking about products that are difficult to manage, even if we want to do so with respect for fair, sustainable, local trade.

Take for example cocoa or palm oil with currently attempts to produce, develop and market a palm oil that would be sustainable and ⁇ fair. At the same time, it is clear that if certain sectors, if some economic actors try to develop this product, they are taken into a more collective market and in modes of production that harm local natural resources, near the plants used to make palm oil. We are therefore really in a dynamic of very complicated, very difficult reflection, which goes beyond merely buying products that today can be identified as part of fair trade. I believe that the work of this informal group is important and must continue.

Regarding the resolution, which is the emanation of part of this work, it is obviously important to adopt and implement it. I just wanted to draw your attention to this definition and the relationship between fair, i.e. fair remuneration, local production and sustainable production. These three concepts are obviously closely linked. If one of these parameters is removed, we will necessarily weaken the other two and risk damaging the actors that we want to preserve through fair trade.

Fair trade is evident in the North-South relations. It is also in the relations and in the development of the South-South economy and in the development of the North-North economy that it must be able to appreciate, develop it and allow both the fair remuneration of production, a preservation and a concern for the resources that must be renewable as well as a re-investment of profits in the development of communities, but a re-investment that these productive and local communities choose themselves without being subject to the choices of some multinationals who say: "I will invest in a hospital center, I will invest in a school and the local community that produces the material I will take will only have to satisfy or be satisfied with the hospital that I will come to finance it."

Fair trade is also a collaborative and participatory development, with the involvement of the various actors. I therefore hope that our Parliament will eventually have sufficient consumption and encourage other public authorities, regardless of the level of power, to favor the use of these products.

Mr. Speaker, I was not registered as a speaker, but after the statement of my colleague Gerkens, I would like to say that, apart from your respect, I have the impression that we can do better in the House, regarding what is proposed to us during the afternoons of the plenary session. I have nothing against what is proposed to us, but frankly, when I see the quality of our country’s producers – and I’m talking about North-North reports too – we can do better.

It is true that an effort is made at the level of beers. You can say it and my neighbor, if he was there, would confirm it. On the other hand, cheese can be done better. We do this in our municipalities, including by buying Oxfam products that are more focused on North-South reports. I like to make resolutions. Often, everyone is happy to see them adopted, but they are not followed by a lot of effects. You have an important role to play here and Mr. Secretary also. If we could count on your effective support, we would be really pleased.

Actually, I take note of your statements and I turn to the other members of the Governing Committee to reflect on them and give them an adequate response.

Mr. Speaker, the N-VA Group will support this proposal for a resolution following the adoption of a number of amendments relating to important substantive comments. For us, it is fundamental that the text respects the competences of the counties and the local level. Thanks to our amendments, this has also been tightened.

Since international cooperation has so far been a fragmented competence, it is important to clearly indicate which level does what. Our group is therefore very pleased with the call in the proposal to take over a realization of the Flemish government, namely respect for the Bangladesh Charter on safe and dignified manufactured textiles, as official clothing of the federal government.

The text is also in line with our government’s SDG-driven sustainable development policy, as also demonstrated during the presentation a few days ago of the Voluntary National Review on the status of SDGs at the United Nations in New York.

In international cooperation, the government emphasizes sustainable economic development in the South. Whoever says sustainable, says honest. Whoever says economic development, says trade. We are therefore pleased that the opposition sees salvation in this approach and that we have been able to unanimously adopt the draft resolution in the committee. We hope that this will be repeated in the plenary session.