"Making Trade Fairer: Trader Standard Revised"., 12 Mar 2015

..Fairtrade’s newly revised Trader Standard aims to strengthen core requirements, promote greater transparency, and also includes new voluntary best practices to recognize traders who go above and beyond simple compliance with core requirements...The revision comes out of a far-reaching consultation with approximately 400 stakeholders participating, including more than 100 producers, over 170 traders and input from workshops held in six countries...New voluntary best practices included in the Trader Standard will be audited, giving Fairtrade the ability to formally recognize those who go above and beyond. For companies that are still developing their approach to sustainability, these best practices provide a framework to improve performance – similar to the development path model used in Fairtrade’s Producer Standards...In addition to improving on the existing Standard, new requirements have been added in three major areas...