Workshop Recommendations
Fair Trade

Recommendations to Civil Society:

• Strengthen the lobbying and advocacy capacity of civil society on the mechanisms related to international trade and macroeconomic policies to ensure their inclusion of social and democratic clauses, defence of and support for forms of economic activity of poor populations and trade regulations that centre on human development.
  
  
• Promote the establishment of local savings and credit systems in order to raise, retain and reinvest local resources.
  
  
• Promote the creation of small support-service enterprises to provide small-scale local producers with research, expansion and technical assistance.
  
  
• Establish comprehensive local economic and production networks to help local producers face the fierce competition created by the opening up and globalization of economies.

Recommendations to Governments:

• Increase investment in support services for small-scale producers in the agriculture and livestock industry (research, expansion and technical assistance as well as savings and credit systems) that strengthen production, storage, processing, packaging and marketing capabilities.
  
  
• Promote the establishment of solidarity markets as economic tools for the political empowerment of producers.
  
  
• Establish information systems on health-care standards, quality specifications, trademark registration, etc.
  
  
• Increase diversification in local and regional markets in order to deal with the new waves of globalization and set up support services for small producers, such as information systems on health-care standards, which facilitate their entry into foreign markets.
  
  
• Introduce and apply anti-trust laws that provide small-scale producers with more opportunities to obtain a share of local and national markets.

Recommendations to Civil Society and Governments:

• Promote comprehensive rural development strategies with the mid-and long-term goal of fostering job creation in the agriculture and livestock sector as well as other industries such as tourism, trade and services.
  
  
• Ensure the planning and diversification of production systems for small-scale producers in accordance with land-use capacity.
  
  
• Promote the local production of goods and the development of linkages between local and/or regional production processes in order to increase the value added and job creation which, in turn, will strengthen local economies.

Recommendations to International Organizations:

• Promote fairer, more equitable and transparent trade relations and agreements that are based on the principles of social responsibility and ensure the sustainable use of human and natural resources.
  
  
• Strengthen and expand fair and equitable trade as an alternative for small-scale producers in developing countries. This is a means of reducing unfair exchange practices being used in international trade, boosting the independence of developing nations and demanding a more equitable international order which, in turn, will contribute to the reduction of poverty.
  
  
• Create information-sharing systems on quality standards, phyto-sanitary norms, trade regulations and trade negotiations that are being conducted on agriculture, labour and environmental issues at the multilateral and regional levels.
  
  
• Promote electronic commerce as a means of providing small-scale producers with more marketing opportunities, based on resolutions adopted by UNCTAD.

Recommendations to Civil Society and International Organizations:

• Provide international organizations in Latin America promoting fair trade with the necessary support to increase their lobbying and negotiating capacity and power within multilateral and regional trade bodies.
  
  
• Promote the creation of partnerships which bring together the interests of organizations that support small-scale producers in northern and southern countries. The aim of this partnership would be to develop and establish a position with which to approach the WTO and free-trade agreement negotiations in order to denounce dumping by industrialized countries, promote increased transparency in international standards and ensure that the agreements are based on the principles of social responsibility.