From Issue 113, July 2008
The 2005 ‘Sustainable Procurement Action Plan’ established the UK Government’s desire to be ‘recognised as a leader in Sustainable Procurement’ within the EU by 2009. As this deadline approaches, we assess the legal obstacles which stand in the way of buying fair trade products.
All procurement within the EU is governed by Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) guidelines, which are based on the need to establish “best value” for taxpayers. Unfortunately in large public sector organisations purchasing decisions still tend to be made on the basis of the lowest initial cost.
This often fails to take into account even common sense elements such as power usage, ability to source replacement parts and disposal costs. Exactly how much of a barrier “best value” represents to ethical purchasing is still a legal grey area.
The Office of Government Commerce guidelines (2004) define value for money as “the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality to meet the users requirements”.
According to Barbara Crowthers of the Fairtrade Foundation, this makes the question one of defining the organisations requirements, so that they include social and environmental considerations.
Though she notes that legal ambiguities in the application of the guidelines still cause confusion. For example, it is apparently legally acceptable to require tenders for electricity to come from renewable resources but not for all tea and coffee carry the Fairtrade mark.
When Douwe Egberts brought a discrimination case in November 2007 against the Dutch Province of Groningen for specifying that only coffee with the Max Havelaar Fairtrade label would be accepted, the Dutch court accepted the wider social aims for the purchaser and found against Douwe Egberts.
On receiving the news Coen de Ruiter, Director of the Dutch division of the Max Havelaar Foundation, extended ‘a warm invitation to Douwe Egberts to become a Max Havelaar Foundation licensee, as the majority of the Dutch coffee suppliers are, they will then meet the requirements for fair trade as set down by the Province of Groningen.’
For those who don’t fancy defending their purchasing decisions in court, the Fairtrade Foundation’s advice is that a clause is included at the earliest possible stage of the tendering process stating that an organisation endeavours to use ‘only products produced in compliance with the European Parliaments resolution on fair trade (A6-0207/2006)’.
Their message is not to be put off by the complexity and “legalese” surrounding these issues but to follow the recommendations of those who’ve already blazed a trail in this area.
Matt Fawcett is a freelance journalist specialising in ethical issues.