“We will not shy away from the issue of legislation”

In her speech to the conference, deputy director-general International Cooperation Birgitta Tazelaar promised that her government will make a more vigorous effort to adopt legislation on sustainable trade, including living wages and incomes, in the years ahead. “We will launch this discussion next year in the Netherlands.”

Also a video message was presented of Gerd Müller, the German federal minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Netherlands and Germany were amongst the organisers of the conference. Both governments are very supportive to various efforts to achieve living wages and incomes and try to integrate it in their policies.

Birgitta Tazelaar firmly believes that it is possible to make companies that process goods responsible for achieving sustainability in their supply chain. She also promised to work with Germany to stimulate the debate in the EU on effective policies on corporate social responsibility. She said her government will also stimulate a national agreement on making the cocoa industry more sustainable, like has been done already in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. “We have to translate these agreement into action as quickly as possible. And let’s support the efforts of the governments of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire to raise the minimum price for cocoa, as a step towards living incomes for their farmers.”

According to her, more and more consumers are willing to make sustainable choices. “But to make these choices, they need to be fully informed. They have to know about the actual wages and incomes for farmers. Even if that is an inconvenient truth. There is a gap that has to be closed. Consumers have to be confident that claims of sustainability are justified.”

Here she sees a role for retail chains and stores. She addressed them directly: ‘Nobody knows more than you about the power of advertising. So I call upon you creativity and commercial instinct to tell consumers a story about fair trade. And to help them realise that fair products have fair prices.’

Birgitta Tazelaar applauded the commitments on living wages and income that were presented at the conference. “Putting all these good intentions into practice requires working together. Partnerships are key. As we proceed the SDG agenda for 2030, we are trying to secure living wage and income worldwide for the people that produce our goods. To achieve this, major progress has to be made by 2025, in many different sectors.”

You can read the full speech here.