Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance Outlines Principles for Fair and Sustainable Trade

A document released by the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance outlines eleven principles designed to help Canada's trade negotiators achieve fair and sustainable trade agreements that won't inadvertently hinder trade.The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance has Introduced a document which outlines eleven "Principles for Sustainable and Fair Trade in the Agri-Food Sector."

CAFTA Executive Director Michael Harvey says the document provides a structured approach for governments and interested stakeholders as they engage in policy discussions related to trade and sustainability.

Quote-Michael Harvey-Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance:

Sustainable trade is something that you're seeing discussed more and more in the international institutions that deal with trade.The World Trade Organization has conversations ongoing both in agri-food and in the broader economy.You are seeing other governments discussing it and our members were concerned that sometimes these sustainable trade discussions can put up barriers to trade.

What we want to make sure is that a certain number of principles are being followed, that sustainable is about getting to sustainable outcomes in trade but not putting up trade barriers.Sustainable trade should enable and support economic and productivity growth.That's really the heart of it.

Sustainable trade is about making the world economy stronger so it's about allowing farmers to produce as much as possible, it's about international trade to work so that food can get from places that produce it, like Canada which produces more food than it consumes, to countries that import food in an efficient manner, in a way that doesn't make costs unnecessarily high for the consumer or for the producer.

Harvey says the principles be referred to in any kind of discussion and the hope is that Canada's trade negotiators will stick to them as much as possible when negotiating international trading agreements or international trade documents.For information on the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance or its Principles for Sustainable and Fair Trade visit cafta.org.For more visit Farmscape.Ca.