Abbott speaks in Geneva on voluntary Free Trade standards

November 04, 2008

Professor <a href="http://www.law.asu.edu/Apps/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?individual_id=45983">K… Abbott</a> of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law recently gave a keynote speech at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in which he addressed voluntary standards for social and environmental issues in the context of new forms of international regulation and global governance.<separator></separator>The conference was sponsored by the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL) Alliance, a formal collaboration of leading international standard-setting and conformity assessment organizations focused on social and environmental issues. <separator></separator>The member institutions of ISEAL sponsor voluntary standards for business conduct, especially in terms of environmental performance, worker and human rights, poverty alleviation and food safety. <separator></separator>Examples of these institutions include the Fairtrade Labeling Organization, which certifies the farms, traders and roasters that produce Fair Trade coffee, as well as many other Fair Trade products; and the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies forests that are managed sustainably and with respect for the people living there. <separator></separator>“Increasingly, businesses are signing on to standards like these,” Abbott said. “You can get Fair Trade coffee at lots of places, and Home Depot has agreed to buy a certain percentage of FSC-certified lumber.<separator></separator>“But the subject of this conference was the interesting new development that governments are also using these standards instead of (or in addition to) regulating directly themselves.”<separator></separator>For example, Tuscany, Italy, has signed up to work with a program called Social Accountability International to certify its small businesses as friendly to workers and socially responsible, to help it develop a new commercial identity as “Toscana Ethica”; Belgium is promoting Fair Trade certification in developing countries to help them increase the value of their exports; and Guatemala has contracted with the Forest Stewardship Council to manage its Maya Biosphere Reserve. <separator></separator>The conference included representatives from various governments, international organizations, and the private standards groups themselves. <separator></separator>Abbott also will speak on the same subject at a two-day conference of European scholars at Leuven University in Belgium later this month.<separator></separator>Judy Nichols, <a href="mailto:judith.nichols@asu.edu">judith.nichols@asu.edu</a> (480) 727-7895 Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

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