Archive for Our Scotland - www.our-scotland.org Scottish Politics Discussion Forum / Messageboard - Dedicated to online discussion about Scottish Politics and an Independent Scotland, as well as Scottish Society today. We also have a section dedicated to Banter, Sport and Recommended Sites.
|
SLG
|
FM calls for Scotland to become a Fair Trade nationFunny to see that the president was in town to meet Salmond yesterday, before meeting with McConnell.
| Quote: | First Minister calls for Scotland to become a Fair Trade nation
DOUGLAS FRASER, Scottish Political Editor
Four out of 10 Scots will be shopping regularly for fairly traded goods under a plan set out by Jack McConnell yesterday as he spoke to a conference of international diplomats in Glasgow.
Announcing the initiative a year after the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh, the First Minister said Scotland is to join Wales in an unprecedented project to seek a new status of being Fair Trade nations.
That would mean 40% of people regularly buying products certified as paying a fair price to disadvantaged producers in developing countries, while 75% of Scots would buy a Fair Trade product at least once a year.
It would also require all councils to work towards the status, all Scotland's cities to have achieved the status, and most universities and colleges working towards it.
At present, 45% of Scots are aware of the Fair Trade movement, with rapid growth in the products involved. Coffee and tea sales have led the way, and some retailers have applied the principle to clothing. The Fairtrade Foundation recently reported UK sales grew by 40% to £195m in 2005. That is more than one-quarter of the worldwide market of £750m.
A year on from the G8 summit at Gleneagles, at which world poverty topped the agenda, Mr McConnell told those attending the Diplomat Magazine conference: "Our commitment to Fair Trade is at the centre of our national effort to help make poverty history.
"Countries in Africa and the developing world need financial help. But they cannot grow and stand on their own two feet by relying on aid. More importantly, I know that countries like Malawi don't want to simply exist on handouts."
The First Ministers' diplomatic role is to extend to two presidential visits to Edinburgh. He is to meet the president of Estonia at Bute House this morning, after Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, met him yesterday. And the Lithuanian president is visiting Bute House tomorrow.
Mr McConnell also has an audience with the Queen this morning at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where she is taking part in her annual week-long programme of Scottish events. |
http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/65262.html
|
azzuri
|
| Quote: | | That would mean 40% of people regularly buying products certified as paying a fair price to disadvantaged producers in developing countries, while 75% of Scots would buy a Fair Trade product at least once a year. |
As much as I myself buy the odd fairtrade coffee and chocolate, how exactly do they plan to make sure these targets are met?
Are they going to persuade or force people to buy them? Or, as would be New Labour's way, are they going to add lots and lots of taxes to non-fairtrade products?
|
|
|
|