Abstract
This chapter will elaborate on the role of voluntary standards in German development policy. Today, social and ecological conditions of production are at the heart of intense discussions on globalisation. Of particular concern are production conditions in developing countries, where lack of capacity to implement international agreements is often observed. Private ecological and social standards play an important role in the efforts of private companies to introduce more sustainability in their supply chains. Since these developments directly affect developing countries, private standards have increasingly been of concern in German development policy. In some cases this chapter discusses private voluntary standards together with legally binding requirements. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, private standards often rely on binding international conventions—e.g. the International Labour Organization (ILO) core labour standards are the basis of almost every private social standard. Additionally, from a government’s point of view, both are ways to achieve the same objectives and some instruments—like modern trade and investment agreements—deal with both. Additionally, governments sometimes even rely on private standards when designing regulatory initiatives. For example, the Guatemalan government has made Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification mandatory for forestry firms operating in the ‘Mayan Biosphere Reserve’ (IAWG 2011, p. 24). Therefore, a discussion of the issues surrounding private standards is often linked to legal instruments.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
4C Association (2013) Mission and vision of the 4C Association. http://www.4c-coffeeassociation.org/about-us/mission-and-vision.html. Last accessed 04 July 2013
EC – European Commission (2013) Generalised scheme of preferences. http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/development/generalised-scheme-of-preferences/index_en.htm. Last accessed 04 July 2013
European Parliament (2011) Report on the future international investment policy (2010/2203(INI)). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-0070&language=EN. Last accessed 04 July 2013
EU – European Union (2008) Economic partnership agreement between the CARIFORUM states, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part. Official Journal of the European Union L 289/I/3
Forum Fairer Handel (2012) Wachstum trotz Krise: Fairer Handel in Deutschland boomt – doch Rohstoff-Spekulationen gefährden den Erfolg. Pressemitteilung, 10.08.2012. http://www.forum-fairer-handel.de/#fairerhandel_pressemitteilungen. Last accessed 04 July 2013
G8 (2009) Concluding Report on the Heiligendamm process, L’Aquila. http://www.g8italia2009.it/static/G8_Allegato/06_Annex_1__HDP_Concluding.pdf. Last accessed 04 July 2013
G20 (2011) 2011 report of the development working group. http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2011/2011-cannes-dwg-111028-en.pdf. Last accessed 04 July 2013
GTZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (now GIZ) (2006) Guiding principles on the provision of support by German Development Cooperation for voluntary social and ecological standards initiatives, commissioned by Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Eschborn
IAWG – Inter-Agency Working Group on the Private Investment and Job Creation Pillar of the G20 Multi-Year Action Plan on Development (2011) Promoting standards for responsible investment in value chains: report to the high-level development working group, September 2011. http://unctad.org/sections/dite_dir/docs/diae_G20_CSR_Standards_Report_en.pdf. Last accessed 04 July 2013
ILO – International Labour Organization (2012) Tackling child labour: from commitment to action. ILO/International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), Geneva
ITC – International Trade Centre (2010) Voluntary standards in developing countries: the potential of voluntary standards and their role in international trade. International Trade Forum 3/2010
ITC – International Trade Centre (2012) Voluntary standards. http://www.intracen.org/trade-support/voluntary-standards/. Last accessed 04 July 2013
Ramm G, Fleischer C, Künkel P, Fricke V (2008) Introduction of voluntary social and ecological standards in developing countries: synthesis report. Evaluation Reports 43. Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (BMZ), September 2008
Round Table – Round Table Codes of Conduct (2011) Round Table (RT) Codes of Conduct action programme for a living wage. http://www.coc-runder-tisch.de/index.php/en/ueber-den-runden-tisch-en-2/publikationen-runder-tisch-en. Last accessed 04 July 2013
UNCTAD – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2012a) Information note: UN forum on sustainability standards to be launched soon. http://unctad.org/en/pages/InformationNoteDetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=22. Last accessed 04 July 2013
UNCTAD – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2012b) World Investment Report – Towards a new generation of investment policies, Geneva
WTO – World Trade Organization (2011) Sanitary and phytosanitary measures: Formal meeting. http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news11_e/sps_30mar11_e.htm. Last accessed 04 July 2013
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schmieg, E. (2014). The Role of Voluntary Standards in German Development Policy. In: Schmitz-Hoffmann, C., Schmidt, M., Hansmann, B., Palekhov, D. (eds) Voluntary Standard Systems. Natural Resource Management in Transition, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35716-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35716-9_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35715-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35716-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLaw and Criminology (R0)