The Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) speaks out on behalf of the Fair Trade Movement for Fair Trade and Trade Justice with the aim to improve the livelihoods of marginalised producers and workers in the South. The FTAO is a joint initiative of Fairtrade International, the World Fair Trade Organization and the World Fair Trade Organization-Europe.

The FTAO was born in 2004 when the Fair Trade networks set up an informal advocacy cooperation mechanism. In December 2010, the Fair Trade networks formalised their commitment and set up the FTAO as a legally-independent foundation ‘Fair Trade Advocacy Office’. It has a clear mandate to advocate for EU policies in support of Fair Trade and Trade Justice and to strengthen the FTAO and the Fair Trade networks and their members’ capacities to interact with and maintain an ongoing dialogue with the EU Institutions.