The Fair Trade Certified Mark is a fair trade certification mark used in Canada and in the United States. It appears on products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal. The Fair Trade Certified Mark is the North American equivalent of the International Fairtrade Certification Mark used in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2010, Canada began actively promoting both the Fair Trade Certified Mark and the International Fairtrade Certification Mark as part of a transition process towards the latter, which became the primary Fairtrade Certification Mark in 2011.
For a product to carry either Certification Marks, it must come from FLO-CERT inspected and certified producer organizations. The crops must be grown and harvested in accordance with the International Fairtrade standards set by FLO International. The supply chain is also monitored by FLO-CERT to ensure the integrity of labelled products. Only TransFair USA or TransFair Canada licensees can use the Fair Trade Certified Mark on their products, however a gradual phase-out of this mark began in Canada in 2011.
The Canadian Fair Trade Certified Mark was introduced by TransFair Canada on the Canadian market in 1997.
The American Fair Trade Certified Mark was introduced by TransFair USA on the American market in 1998.
Famous quotes containing the words fair, trade, certified and/or mark:
“Diaphenia, like the daffadowndilly,
White as the sun, fair as the lily,
Heigh ho, how I do love thee!”
—Henry Constable (1562–1613)
“Experience has shown that the trade of the East is the key to national wealth and influence.”
—Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886)
“Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is still theoretically possible; and as the test of belief is willingness to act, one may say that faith is the readiness to act in a cause the prosperous issue of which is not certified to us in advance.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“There was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)