Keswick and District Fairtrade Newsletter No. 13

For new members, whom we welcome, we start by telling you that we produce a Newsletter three times a year.  Each one is posted out to members with Fair Comment from the Fairtrade Foundation (which you can of course also access online).

When we were in Ethiopia last year, Workineh Heldaje, a Choche coffee farmer, asked us what we would do as a result of our visit.  ‘What will be your fruitfulness?’ he said, rather poetically.  We hope that this Newsletter will give some idea of the ‘fruitfulness’ of the last few months. Keswick's Theatre by the Lake continues to give invaluable support to Fairtrade.  Not only do they serve Fairtrade coffee and tea in their café, and have given us permanent notice board space to put across the Fairtrade message, but in the summer holidays they did even more!  To coincide with Around the World in 80 Days they devised an ‘Around the World the Fairtrade Way Treasure Hunt’.  With the help of Phileas Fogg, the main character in the show, children travelled across the world, hunting Fairtrade treasure contained in eleven Fairtrade cotton bags around the Theatre building.  The children learned through this process how Fairtrade changes lives.  Completed entries went into a draw, and the winner, Rebecca Wells, who attends Cockermouth School, received a hamper of Fairtrade goods and two tickets to attend a performance at the Theatre.  Working with Theatre staff on this project was immensely satisfying. The Lonsdale Alhambra showed Black Gold at the end of August for those who had not been able to see it at the Theatre in June Talking about Fairtrade: Throughout the last few months, Allan Sharman and Elspeth Sherwen have continued to give talks and presentations to a wide variety of audiences.  These have included primary school children, Rotary International District Meetings, Mothers’ Union, W.I. and other Fair Trade / Fairtrade Groups in the county.  In the last 20 months we have talked to well over 5000 people on more than 100 occasions. Following Allan’s return to Choche, this October, the presentations have been updated to provide information on the current impact that Fairtrade has on this coffee growing community.   Bookings are being taken well into 2008, so please contact Allan or Elspeth to check their availability to talk to your group or association.  Since Fairtrade Fortnight 2007 the committee has met regularly for breakfast at the Wild Strawberry, whenever there has been a particular item which merits relaxed discussion.  In September we invited Sarah Kitching and Emily Webzell, from Keswick School, to join us for breakfast, with their teachers Alan Nanson and Sue Penrice, to talk about their visit to St Lucia.  They had won this as first prize in a national design competition, organised by PrintIt and the Fairtrade Foundation.  The report they gave us of their visit was moving and informative.  It is vitally important, of course, that young people both absorb and communicate the message of Fairtrade.  We were, therefore, delighted to welcome another Keswick School student, John Hawarth, to another of our breakfasts.  John’s engagement with issues such as Fairtrade and climate change is inspiring.  At the beginning of October we held another Extraordinary General Meeting in response to advice from the Charity Commission.  Since then we have been delighted to hear that they have reconsidered their former decision to reject our application for Charitable Status. Wednesday 21st November saw our first Fairtrade Wine Tasting event, hosted by Paul Briers of the Wine Rack, Keswick.  The Wine Rack promotes its range of Fairtrade wines as ‘Wines that Make a Difference’, from which Paul chose a selection of five different wines for people to try.  Members of the committee were on hand to talk about campaign issues, as well as sampling the wines alongside interested customers!   It was good to share with Paul in his enthusiasm to promote a different Fairtrade product, at what proved to be a very ‘fruitful’ evening! New businesses: We continue to ‘expand’ the Fairtrade market in and around Keswick.  This expansion will be shown in our next Directory, to be published in 2008, and on our newly made website, which is about to be launched.  Recently, Keswick Cottages, a self-catering letting agency based in Braithwaite, switched the tea and coffee in all 53 of their properties to Fairtrade. Trade Justice: We have watched, with disappointment occasionally peppered by hope, as the Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation, which is intended to produce changes to trade rules to the benefit of developing countries, received an apparent new lease of life. The negotiations are still limping along: the Chairmen of the two most important committees express - diplomatically - anger and despair. The debates are complicated by the fact that India and Brazil are becoming seen as a growing threat to the dominance of the rich countries in the trading system. But the biggest threat to the rich nations of the North is China, a new member of the WTO, and the US in particular sees that country as a dangerous rival. Our lobbying has been mainly focused on the Economic Partnership Agreements which are currently being drawn up between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. These are all small and mostly poor or very poor countries.  Peter Mandelson, the EU commissioner for trade matters, says that he is willing to allow agricultural exports from the ACP countries to continue to enter Europe without paying tariffs (taxes).  But he is insisting that the ACP countries allow free entry for European manufactured goods.  The African countries are asking that they be given a transition period when they would gradually allow in European goods without tariffs, in order to protect their own growing industries.  The EU is demanding a short transition period except for very sensitive products in very exceptional circumstances.  The ACP countries have far fewer resources to devote to the necessary consultations and need more time to come to any agreement with the EU.  At present many of them are refusing to yield to the pressure being put on them and they are seeking ways of allowing for more time. Please take the time to go to this website and click on ‘Act Now’. The new International Coffee Agreement (ICA) has now been drawn up.  Some of the points which are included have been seen by Oxfam as victories for Trade Justice lobbying.  However, Oxfam has pointed out that the Agreement expressed intention on matters vital to small farmers, but that it is implementation of the objectives that counts and will need to be monitored. We are still in touch with Prospery Raymond from Haiti who spoke in Keswick in Christian Aid Week, and we are working with Christian Aid in lobbying to try to ensure that the debt cancellation which Haiti desperately needs, is conducted as fairly and as swiftly as possible. The next Newsletter will be produced in late May 2008.

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