Fair trade labeling isn't cut-and-dried

Mar 7, 2010 — The Sacramento Bee

M.S. Enkoji

Mar. 7, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- For some shoppers, when they buy their coffee, a bottle of honey and or that Mexican woodcarving, a "fair trade" label on it is just as important as the taste or the look or the cost.

The fair trade label of one international organization is familiar to at least half of consumers, according to a 2008 survey conducted in 15 countries for Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International.

Yet even as awareness grows, fair trade gins up controversy because the term is difficult to define -- unlike, say, setting safe lead-paint levels for toys.

The concept could get even more buzz this year as one national organization extends its fair trade certification into clothing lines and linens.

"Our research has shown there is a high awareness of sweatshop issues in this country," said Tierra Del Forte of TransFair USA in Oakland. "You can do the simple math: if a T-shirt costs $2, the person who made it wasn't paid a fair wage."

TransFair USA is undertaking an unprecedented expansion this year from certifying simple commodities, such as coffee, into the more complex clothing and textile industry, which could potentially offer even more shoppers a choice to consider: fair trade or not?

Fair trade generally alludes to a social movement to fairly compensate farmers and artisans for their products, eliminating sweatshops in the supply chain. But it can also encompass workers' living and education standards.

The standards remain as varied as the organizations that seek to promote or certify fair trade products, critics say. That means for consumers that the term could confuse, even dupe them, over expectations about conditions that created the jeans they wear, the coffee they drink and the art objects they admire.

"The term can be very loosey-goosey and not informative," said Erik Autor, vice president and international trade counsel for the National Retail Federation. "This whole system is fraught with potential problems and can mislead the consumer.

"It's not to say these initiatives, when they work with a variety of stakeholders and come together to agree on best practices, can't be useful."

Even those in the business of monitoring against offshore sweatshops are hard pressed to define fair trade.

"I don't think there is a definitive consumer label out there," said Steve Jesseph, president of WRAP, or Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production. His 10-year-old nonprofit group certifies factories that comply with safety and work environment standards.

Those who embrace fair trade principles can be uneasy with standardized labels.

Daljit Bains of Sacramento quit her pharmaceutical company job two years ago to start Kaur Shawls and Textiles, a wholesale importing business. Her shawls and scarves are sold locally at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and the Davis Food Co-op.

"I went in really glossy-eyed," she said about her commitment to fair trade, which, to her, meant no child labor.

On a visit to her weavers in India she was disturbed to see a young girl, about 12, working among them.

" 'Why isn't she in school?' I asked," Bains said.

She soon learned that the girl, working in a rural home environment, not a factory, worked only occasionally and had completed the legal level of education to read and write, and she was gaining embroidery skills that would support her for a lifetime.

"See, it's very tricky," she said.

TransFair certifies by hiring local auditors who conduct on-site interviews with employees and managers and institutes training, including how to file complaints. Worker committees are appointed to decide how to use a premium paid by the manufacturers for community development projects, such as water wells.

Some labor advocates remain at odds over fair trade labeling efforts, including TransFair's, because they call for "legal" rather than "fair" wages, said Bjorn Claeson, executive director of SweatFree Communities. The nonprofit group lobbies local and state governments to adopt laws supporting sweatshop-free guidelines in purchasing government-issued clothing, such as police and firefighters' uniforms.

What qualifies as a legal wage offshore could continually impoverish workers, said Claeson, who concedes that monitoring and measuring multinational living standards and conditions is challenging. "If it was easy to find the good guys in this industry, it would be easy to solve," he said.

The idea of fair trade, by most accounts, harkens back to the 1940s in the United States, when a Mennonite shop owner began directly paying Puerto Rican women for sewn goods.

As social and environmental concerns gathered followers during the 1960s, the idea of fair trade gained steam, particularly in Europe, and it soon mushroomed into a number of organizations with different traditions and histories focused on fair trade, said Laura Raynolds, co-director of the Center for Fair and Alternative Trade at Colorado State University.

During the 1990s, allegations that linked offshore sweatshops with Nike (NYSE:NKE) shoes and Kathie Lee Gifford's clothing line for Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) pushed many domestic brands and retailers toward greater transparency about how their products are made.

At about the same time, clothing manufacturing began moving offshore -- more than nine out of 10 pieces of clothing and shoes are made overseas today -- and international travel increased, Jesseph said.

"All that came together in a confluence to increase awareness. Prior to that, few people asked questions," he said.

Many retail brands have adopted their own standards and invite scrutiny of their supply chains, which could ultimately be more informative for consumers than a certification, said Autor from the National Retail Federation.

"It's a very different environment than it was 15 years ago," he said.

Still, the effort to promote fair trade items offers value to consumers, said Raynolds, the college professor.

"Ultimately, consumers are busy. We do have to turn over some of this oversight to other organizations," she said.

Moving into clothing and textile certification is an ambitious step, she said.

"It's a much more complicated industry to ensure social and environmental conditions," she said. "But it can affect a large industry and a large number of workers."

TransFair, which belongs to the global Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, describes itself as the country's only independent, third-party certifier of fair trade products.

Beginning with coffee in 1999, TransFair now certifies 30 different products, mostly food and body care products and cotton.

TransFair has been working on launching the pilot clothing and textile program since 2005 and will initially focus on workers in six "cut-and-sew" factories producing cotton goods in India, Liberia, Peru and Costa Rica.

The brands that will participate in the pilot plan are still undisclosed, but the cotton clothing and linens in stores will feature hang tags with the TransFair label or sewn labels on the item.

There's a lot on the line, according to a passage in TransFair's own study: "As the garment industry is notoriously unstable, the risks of certification failure are extremely high and could threaten the entire Fair Trade movement if a scandal occurs."

At Zanzibar Trading Company in midtown, owner Scott Farrell is used to spending 150 days a year racking up frequent-flier miles, meeting people like the Fuentes family, who produce art objects from exotic locales. He also belongs to the Fair Trade Federation and buys into other organizations to authenticate his principles.

But for him, the best proof is his own remarkable relationship with his artists. Farrell has lent money for supplies to his artists. He's doted on their pet dogs.

"This piece," he said, leaning into a wooden statue from Mexico, "was done by a guy who's the town's barber."

Call The Bee's M.S. Enkoji, (916) 321-1106.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0178-42648216