Father Christmas delivers a message of cotton justice

By Jayde Bradley, Senior Campaigns Officer, Traidcraft

Ahead of the World Trade Organisation ministerial later this week, Traidcraft – with a helping hand from Father Christmas – took the campaign for cotton justice to the US Embassy.

Thousands of Fairtrade supporters from Traidcraft, Fairtrade Foundation and People Tree have been campaigning for an end to US cotton subsidies in the last few months.

5,500 campaign postcards were received by Edward Davey who thanked campaigners for raising this issue – and thousands more signed a petition to US Ambassador Louis Susman.

And who better to deliver the petition to the US Embassy at this festive time of year than Father Christmas?

He caught the attention of commuters as he forfeited a sleigh ride in favour of the London underground – and struggled on the escalator with the giant sack representing all the people that have taken action.

But eventually he made it to the Embassy (where he was greeted by a special agent) and handed over the petition, along with a letter signed by Traidcraft and the Fairtrade Foundation.

When questioned about his involvement in the campaign, Father Christmas commented:

‘I am able to deliver presents around the world in one night – yet in the ten years since the Doha Development Round was launched, almost nothing has been delivered for poor countries.

In fact, since the initiation of the Doha round, the US has paid more than $31 billion to its cotton farmers and further dragged down the price poor cotton farmers can get for their crop.

Cotton continues to be one of the most contentious issues at the WTO – a recent proposal by West African countries for a freeze on cotton subsidy spending at current levels was blocked before even getting to the negotiating table.
Lack of action from the US continues to undermine the very notion of a multilateral trade system and threaten the livelihoods of millions of cotton farmers around the world.’

Traidcraft and the Fairtrade Foundation have been working closely together on the campaign to put an end to damaging, unfair and illegal cotton subsidies.

We will be following developments at the ministerial later this week and calling on the US to use the Farm Bill to cut cotton subsidies in line with demands made by African cotton-producing countries at the WTO.

Stay tuned for our reaction to the negotiations.

Find out more about the range of problems that stop cotton farmers from making the most of their crop;

Read Traidcraft’s latest briefing paper ‘White Gold’ here 

Attend the Trade Justice Movement event in London on December 16th

Visit www.fairtrade.org.uk/cotton for more on Fairtrade cotton