Imbalances of Power in Supply Chains Report Launched
The Fair Trade movement officially launched the report “Who’s got the power? Tackling imbalances in agricultural supply chains” last 18 November in the European Parliament during the event hosted by MEP Catherine Stihler (Vice-chair of Internal Market and Consumers Committee of the European Parliament).
During the launching, Fair Trade Advocacy Office Executive Director Sergi Corbalan handed the report to European Union representatives. Invited speakers and the EU representatives debated the findings of the report.
MEP Mairead McGuinness (EPP, IE), Vice-President of the EP and chair of an MEP informal working group on the issues in supply chains, expressed that the level of progress made so far by the EU on the topic was not enough and demanded more focus on this issue.
Claire Bury (Director of Directorate E – Service of DG Internal Market and Services of European Commission) explained what the Commission has been doing on the topic of Unfair Trading Practices in the past years and proposed what is to be done regarding the evaluation of Member States’ enforcement mechanisms.
Corbalan said that policy-makers should not tolerate strong supply chain actors squeezing out weaker ones, both upstream and downstream.
“Turning a blind eye to abuses of power in supply chain is not only unethical, it also a main obstacle to the sustainability of supply chains and the interest of future consumers” said Corbalan.