Government advice on the labelling of settlement goods
Last week (December 2009) the government announced advice to UK retailers about the labelling of food produced in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). The advice states that retailers can label food products in a way that distinguishes between goods produced by legitimate Palestinian enterprises from those produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) has cautiously welcomed the advice but considers that it does not go far enough.
All food produce from the oPt has, up until now, generally been labelled as produce of ‘West Bank’ – a label which some consumers and organisations including QPSW argue that whilst being geographically correct is confusing because it fails to make the political origin of the goods.
Campaigners have been pushing for greater clarity in labelling, a move that has been resisted by some retailers who claimed that they could only do this if given better advice from the government. The new labelling advice is significant in that it makes clear that such differentiation is permitted. However the advice, which does not apply to non-food products, is only guidance and therefore retailers will not be legally obliged to implement it. Although some retailers have indicated that they will now move towards clearer labelling, how many will do so and what this means in practice still remains to be seen.
Even if retailers do change their labels, this can only be effective in informing consumers if the information on which those labels are based is accurate. This is by no means certain. In a survey carried out by QPSW partner the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), some retailers claimed to have monitoring systems that enables them to trace the origin of products back to individual farm level, however others did not appear to have such a system. Furthermore one of the mechanisms which the government advises be used to trace origin - the customs declarations submitted when goods from the region are imported in to the EU, have been reported as being subject to falsification by some exporters operating in settlement areas.
QPSW’s position is that, as the product of illegal entities, settlement goods should not be on sale in the UK at all. This position is not apparently shared by the UK government even though the labelling guidance makes clear that it believes settlements are ‘unlawful under international law’ and pose ‘a significant obstacle to peace in the Middle East’. However if properly implemented and backed up by rigorous supply chain monitoring by retailers, the labelling advice could help the many consumers who don’t want to buy settlement goods, make informed choices that could in turn encourage retailers to stop stocking them, whatever the government position.
The next step for campaigners therefore will be to go back to retailers and ask what plans they have for implementing the new advice and crucially how they can be confident about the origins of goods in their supply chains.
Find out more:
- Contact supermarkets and draw their attention to concerns about Israeli settlement goods - information from ECCR
- The full text of the advice can be found on the the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website [offsite link - PDF: 44kb - new window]
- For email updates on campaigning opportunities on this issue, please send an email to suzannei@quaker.org.uk.
13 December 2009
