Hilary is Policy Officer at the Fair Trade Advocacy Office, supported by FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organisation), IFAT (International Fair Trade Association) NEWS (Network of European World Shops) and EFTA (European Fair Trade Association).  She and one other person have to put the case for Fair Trade against a large number of business and Government lobbyists. She spoke to a meeting of the Jersey Fairtrade Island Group in May.

Daniel and Anne Wimberley in conversation with Hilary.

She explained that she has a Jersey background, daughter of Celia Jeune and granddaughter of former Senator Reg Jeune.  She did a Geography B.A. and a Masters in International Development. She has worked in Africa and at the U.N. and spent a year in Brussels working on Conflict prevention before taking up her present post in January.

She outlined the principles behind Fair Trade which includes paying a fair price, supporting market access, building capacity,  making advance payments if requested by the producers and having long term, stable and transparent relations with them. There should be respect for the 8 ILO (International Labour Organisation) conventions about working practices and respect for the environment.

Max Havelaar is a trademark for Fairtrade in Holland (like the Fairtrade Foundation in England). It began certifying Fair Trade products in 1988. Where does the name Max Havelaar come from? More than 130 years ago the author of the book "Max Havelaar or the coffee auctions of the Dutch Trading-Society", Eduard Douwes Dekker, was assistant resident in one of the districts of the former Dutch East Indies, the present Indonesia. Douwes Dekker could not reconcile with the politics of the colonial government who forced the countrymen on a massive scale to work for the Dutch coffee plantations. That pressure was so high that the farmers had to neglect the cultivation of food crops. Famine was the result. In the book, 'Max Havelaar' himself says "And once more I do not ask this for myself, but for the cause that I represent, the cause of justice and humanity, which is also a cause of well-understood politics". (Max Havelaar, 1859, in his famous letter to the King of Holland, pledging for His intervention to secure a humane treatment of the indigenous people of the so called 'Dutch Indies', then later Indonesia. At that time, his plea stayed without positive result.)

Now the mood is changing. Sales of Fair Trade items reached one billion Euros world wide in 2005. In UK sales have grown from £2.75 m in 1994 to £195m n 2005. Over 1.5 m people benefit from Fair Trade sales.

In July 2006 the European Parliament supported a resolution on Fair Trade and Fair Trade teas and coffees are served exclusively in the building. The European Commission and Council do recognise that Fair Trade is important for poverty reduction and sustainable development and highlight this in different documents. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to translate what is said in documents to what happens on the ground.

Free trade or trade liberalisation is high on the E.U. agenda but for Last Developed Countries (LDC) it can destroy local trade and lead to food dependency (local tomato production in Ghana destroyed by imported Italian tomatoes is just one example of many). LDCs are in a weak position in trade negotiations, which are legally binding, as every day in Geneva only about 12 out of 58 of them have people to speak for them. Hilary gave the staggering statistic that it is estimated that LDC's lose about $2m every day through unfair trade rules or 14 times the amount that they receive in aid!!!

The main drivers of trade liberalisation are MNCs (multinational corporations)and supermarkets with 95% of lobbyists coming from this direction, often stronger than national governments. Hilary said that the best counter is the shopping habits of ordinary people who show their care by buying Fair Trade.

To follow her work, please look at their website at www.fairtrade-advocacy.org

Hilary has written a book 'Aid for Trade' in June 2009 looking at ways in which the EU can help small producers to trade their way out of poverty.