Be an ethical pest, urges trade minister

Trade and development minister Gareth Thomas is backing a campaign to encourage consumers to pester retailers about the lack of ethical information available on goods and services.

As part of the "Be an Ethical Pest" campaign announced this week, Thomas outlined a series of questions that consumers should be able to put to retailers. These include asking which country a product comes from, what the retailer is doing to protect the rights of workers who make the products, and whether there is any information available on how much workers are paid.

"The public are obviously committed to the idea of helping developing countries through their weekly shopping, but there is not enough information out there to help people shop ethically," said Thomas.

However, the trade and development minister's comments will no doubt strike some environmental groups as hypocritical, because the UK's trade minister Baroness Ashton is currently embroiled in a controversial set of negotiations with African and Caribbean countries which have been labelled as unethical and damaging.

Friends of the Earth released a report this week heavily criticising Ashton's predecessor Peter Mandelson’s role in developing a series of so-called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with African and Caribbean countries. The environmental group claims that the EPAs put habitats at risk by effectively forcing African countries to lift rules that limit the export of logs and other natural resources – preventing them using the laws to protect forest, wildlife and domestic industries.

Sarah-Jayne Clifton, trade campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said companies must be more transparent about the impacts of their production processes but consumer pressure is only one part of the solution.

"Trade can be an important force for good – and the European Union is a powerful trading block – but its current policies are having a devastating impact on people and planet," said Clifton. "A full-scale rethink of Europe's trade policy is urgently needed, giving priority to the rights of people in developing countries and the protection of the environment."

According to Thomas, sales of ethical goods are increasing despite the economic downturn. A recent survey revealed that in 2007, 60 per cent of under 25s bought clothes irrespective of ethical considerations – that figure has now dropped to 36 per cent, he said.

The ethical pest campaign was developed by the Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance of companies, trade unions and charities including retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer. The campaign was spearheaded by Tara Scott and Stacey Dooley, who were involved in a BBC documentary called Blood, Sweat and T-shirts which investigated the garment industry in India.