France: first official recognition of fair trade among OECD countries

According to a law approved last year (2nd august 2005), the French government presented its own package on the 3rd may 2006 to promote its support to the fair trade movement and to this new form of business. In the middle of the annual two-weeks fair trade event, Renaud Dutreil, minister for SMEs, endorsed the AFNOR definition ? the French standards association -, and gave it a formal approval, after years of negotiations within this institution with the non profit sector. Recent studies and polls have acknowledged the rising interest from the consumers to buy fair trade products, but in the same time their reluctance to trust only private advertising. The lobby of major players in the field, now composed by big retail stores (Carrefour, Monoprix among others) is taking now advantage from the official process to increase its share market. At the International level, France is pushing the fair trade as a a new recipe to fight against poverty and to pave the way for new sustainable exchanges between the European Union and the less developed countries. www.pme.gouv.fr