WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/CTE/W/240  
21 October 2004 
 
 (04-4477) 
Committee on Trade and Environment Original:   English 
  
 
STATEMENT BY THE SWISS DELEGATION ON PARAGRAPH 32 (I) OF THE DDA 
 
MARKET ACCESS VIA ORGANIC COMMODITY CHAINS –  
THE CASE OF ORGANIC COTTON 
 
Statement by Switzerland in the Committee on Trade and Environment 
 
at its Meeting of 14 October 2004  
 
 The following communication, dated 14 October 2004, is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegation of Switzerland. 
  
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  1. Ministers in Doha have instructed the Committee on Trade and Environment to give 
particular attention to “the effect of environmen tal measures on market access, especially in relation 
to developing countries, in partic ular the least-developed among them”. 
2. At the last meeting, it was proposed that this  meeting could be used as a forum to share 
experiences with respect to potential effects of environmental measures on market access, in particular for developing countries.  It was also noted that discussions so far focused on the trade 
restrictive effects of environmental measures.  It  was stated that there was a need to reflect on positive 
impacts of certain environmental measures  such as technology transfer, financial or technical 
assistance  which were equally, or, in some cases more important to developing country Members.  
3. Today, we would therefore like to share with you a case study of an increased market access 
of organic cotton chain in Switzerland.  You might be aware that the Swiss textile production is still a 
very important industry sector.  
4. The Swiss Government promotes environmental technology transfer towards developing 
countries, and supports a number of initiatives to main tain or increase the acce ss for those countries to 
Swiss and OECD markets.  Some examples are the Cleaner Production Centres (CPCs) – i.e. promoters of sustainable technologies for the local industry in developing countries – the Swiss Import Promotion Pilot Program (SIPPO), nationa l or regional trade promotion programmes and 
activities in the field of bio or organic certification.  
5. Since several years Switzerland’s development co-operation  has worked on fair-trade and 
organic supply-chains with the idea to develop niche markets into mass markets  thereby enabling 
market access for the commodities of least devel oped countries (LDCs).  This can be successful and 
create market opportunities for LDCs, as the following case of organic cotton in a West-African  
country  shows.  Public-private developm ent partnerships have turned out  to be a useful catalyst for 
this approach, provided that the share of roles be tween the various actors is designed with a mutual 
enhancement of the specific expertise of the parties involved. WT/CTE/W/240 
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 6. The project was implemented through a Swiss NGO Helvetas, which has a rich experience in 
West Africa. Helvetas has established the production technology  and gathered the various local 
stakeholders to realize the project.  The role of  the development co-operation was then to link the 
small farmers to a producers’ association that has the competence to negotiate with the bodies 
procuring the commodity.  The producers’ association also  organizes the conditions for organic 
certification that are accepted in Europe and Swit zerland.  The cotton production achieved the organic 
certification within the usual conversion period. 
7. It has turned out to be essential that the development co-operation partner facilitates the 
networking between different partne rs of the supply-chain, but leaves the full responsibility for the 
business transactions with them.  Furthermore, Helv etas ensures the technology transfer in order to 
guarantee the sustainability of the project on ce the supporting phase has been terminated.  
8. The private sector , in this case three Swiss companies, then take over and organize the 
supply-chain:  The internationall y renowned cotton trader Reinhart
 ensures the purchase, handling and 
logistics.  It is a challenge to keep the organi c material flows separate from the conventional ones, 
since this is a rather new concept to Afri can business partners.  The retailers Switcher  and Migros  and 
their specific manufacturing partners are responsib le for the further processing and the retailing. 
Overall the private sector takes over the mandat es to ensure certainty via long-term purchase 
agreements, to give feedback with regard to pr oduct quality aspects, and to communicate the project 
to consumers in the North.  Th e produced cotton fulfils high qu ality standards and achieved the 
organic certification.  In future, further processing steps shall be undertaken within West Africa. 
9. The benefits for producers are monetary  and non-monetary , thus leading to a high impact 
with regard to poverty alleviation. 
Monetary benefits  for producers participating in the organic cotton projects are:  
• Bio-premium (20-25% higher than normal local cotton price)  
• Fair-trade premium  
• Potential to reduce input costs, e.g. agrochemic als (but depending on the farmer’s experience, 
also the average yield may be somewhat lower than conventional yields),  
• Further bio-products and income from crop rotation (e.g. shea-butter, sesame, etc.)  
• A potential for added value generation within the production country (e.g. yarn processing, 
handicraft products) 
Non-monetary benefits  for producers participating in the organic cotton projects are: 
• Occupational health (no handling of hazardous agrochemicals),  
• Long-term increase of soil fertility,  
• Access to education programmes,  
• Risk minimization via diversification of the crop rotation,  
• Access to micro-credits and equipment,  
• Exchange of experiences within the producers associations 
10. But benefits may also result for the cotton and clothing industry  as well as for consumers . 
11. Within the last few years, the organic cotton has reached a market share of 2.4% of the total 
Swiss cotton imports , or 1’250 tons.  Experts expect this share to double to 5% by 2007.  One  WT/CTE/W/240 
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 important Swiss retailer, COOP Switzerland, the world’s largest retailer of organically produced 
cotton textiles, plans to completely phase out non-orga nic cotton by 2010.  Also international retailers 
(e.g. Nike, IKEA) start to show interest, as well as other importing countries.  Thus, OECD markets 
confirm the demand for organic cotton, and LDCs  have the potential to meet this demand. 
12. Let me point out that this approach could be used as a blueprint.  The impact for the producers 
can be demonstrated with the organic cotton textile  supply-chain that has been established with the 
support of the Swiss Government and private sector in several developing countries.  The project concept has gained sufficient inte rnational awareness that it may be transferred to other cotton 
producing countries.  Finally, the approach has not only potential for the textile sector, but also for 
other sectors. 
13. My delegation would be happy to make a ny information available if so required. 
14. Further information on the project and on th e Swiss Economic Development Cooperation can 
be found on: 
  www.seco-cooperation.ch
 
  www.sippo.ch  
  www.sofi.ch 
 15. For queries regarding this project, please cont act the Swiss State S ecretariat for Economic 
Affairs ( seco): 
  Ms. Ariane Sotoudeh 
  Tel: ++41-31-324 08 98 
  Fax: ++41-31-322 86 30 
  e-mail: ariane.sotoudeh@seco.admin.ch 
 
  
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