Persverklaringen van Aziatische organisaties tegen de WTO (14-20 juli 2008)

Geschreven door rob bleijerveld maandag, 21 juli 2008 02:54

Op deze pagina zijn verschillende perscommuniques te vinden van boeren- en vissersorganisaties uit diverse landen in Azië die scherp protesteren tegen de WTO en de verwachte gevolgen van de huidige onderhandelingsvoorstellen. (Bron: maillijst van het OWINFS 14 tm 20 juli 2008).

Achtereenvolgens:

- "WTO visibly shattering food security" - Asian Peasant Coalition en Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas - 15 juli 2008
- "Peasants, other sectors incite nationwide protest against rice crisis" - Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas - 15 juli 2008
- "Fishers, peasants and workers reiterate calls to reject Doha trade deal in the WTO" (Trade liberalization part of the problem and not the solution to global crises) - Stop the New Round Coalition-Philippines - 19 July 2008
- "The WTO’s Doha Round Will Not Solve the Global Food Crisis! (Implement Genuine Agrarian Reform and National Industrialization!) - Asian Peasant Coalition - 20 juli 2008
- "Asian peasants unite against WTO; Peasant groups vindicated about destructive effects" - Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) - 21 juli 2008

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  "WTO visibly shattering food security"
PRESS RELEASE
July 15, 2008
Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).


The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) claimed that the government’s entry and concurrence to World Trade Organization (WTO) and Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has wreaked havoc to the livelihood of farmers and other sectors, as well as to the food security of the third world countries.

  WTO has signal-fired the dumping of heavily state-subsidized exports in developing countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh which dominoed marginalization of local produce, triggering bankruptcies and indebtedness to the farmers.

  “Imported rice has sideswipe the locally produced that triggered pressing down on farmgate prices of palay,” opened Danilo Ramos, Secretary-General of APC and KMP.

  The flooding of imported rice gave local traders a bargaining chip to force farmers into selling palay at lower costs, which cyclically compelled them to convert into other crops or totally pawn or sell their farms,” Ramos added.

  Generally, APC and KMP believed that governments such as Arroyo’s have deliberately authorized massive dumping to effect crop conversions and selling of lands to cater world market demands as concrete step of trade liberalization. However, as by-product, rapid decrease of rice farm hectarage has contributed to the country’s inability to independently supply its local demand, thus, government rationalizing importation.

  Moreover, as the government executing WTO provisions destroyed the capacity of the country to produce food, world food market has been controlled by developed countries and generated superprofits by gradually increasing their prices at the cost of dependent countries such as the Philippines.

  “We are now importing rice that is more expensive than those locally produced at milled stage, at the consumer end, people are lining up and being restricted with the maximum purchase of 5 kg of rice,” Ramos noted.

  “The government is buying and losing at purchasing imported rice, but it has no intention of using its funds in buying the locally-produced because it tied its own hands as form of total puppetry to the WTO. It invokes non-intervention when it concerns the interests of giant foreign countries and corporations, but all hands in harming the welfare of poor farmers,” exclaimed Ramos.

  “It’s all integral, that government consciously reduce rice farms to cater cash crops, complemented by the promotion of genetically-modified varieties of rice designed by the International Rice Research Institute, wishing of high tonnage per hectare that is only possible of the usage of inputs manufactured by giant foreign agro-chemical corporations,” Ramos described.

  “All these giant foreign countries and enterprises are all that compose the WTO, in conspiracy with puppet governments such as Arroyo’s, they all play this wicked performance, deceiving and exploiting the peoples of the world by causing hunger, poverty and anarchy. The only way to end this is for all of the oppressed to unite and concert their massive
actions," concluded Ramos.

(zie ook het persartikel: "Militants blames WTO for shattering RP food security", GMAnews, 15 juli 2008 (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/107124/Millitants-blames-WTO-for-shattering-RP-food-%20security)

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  "Peasants, other sectors incite nationwide protest against rice crisis"
PRESS RELEASE
July 15, 2008
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)


The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) spearheaded a systematic nationwide protest against Arroyo government programs and policies that led to the rice crisis that's hounding the country. They are joined by rural groups such as Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya sa Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Unyon ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan), IBON Foundation, as well as urban poor and worker groups.

  Regional and provincial groups synchronized mass actions, such as in Southern Tagalog region, in Calamba, Laguna, Cavite, Lipa, Batangas, Rizal and Lucena, Quezon targeting Department of Agriculture (DA) and National Food Authority (NFA) offices. Moreover, regional and local formations of Bantay Bigas (alliance against rice crisis) held heated actions in Digos City by Consumer Alert, in Panay by People's Network for Food Security (PNFS) and Bicol by Bicol Alliance against Rice Price Hike (BAGAS).

  "Do we have to let it linger? Do we have to?" asked Willy Marbella, KMP Deputy Secretary-General for Internal Affairs, referring to the rice crisis. "This is the start of the people's rising against the problems concerning our rice supply. We've seen and experienced hardships in accessing NFA rice, and now, even NFA officials themselves in Bicol have confirmed that they are phasing out the P18.25 per kg rice," Marbella added. "What we fear is that, this could cause mass unrest, just like what happened in Sultan Kudarat where rice warehouses were raided by hungry farmers during the Aquino government," recalled Marbella .

  It's just fortunate that they were upright and principled that they left their names, conveying that they're not stealing but just borrowing it. However, they were acquitted by the courts because their action was an act of desperation to survive," mentioned Marbella .

  KMP has been long protesting that the country's entry to the World Trade Organization and signing with the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) has worsened the situation of the rice industry. Through this, the country has been obliged to import unnecessarily that resulted the marginalization of the local rice, depressing farmgate prices of palay.

  Rice Imports 1990 - 2006 '000 MT

  "Even their own data shows that there's a rapid increase in imported rice that snatched significant share of our gross supply. During the late 1990s, with the exception of 1998, imported rice shared around 3 to 7% of the local supply, but on 2005 and 2006 it played around 12 to 13.5% of the total rice consumed," Marbella explained.

  KMP believes that WTO-AoA has shattered the country's agriculture, particularly rice, when the government implemented ceaseless importation that affected local producers forcing them to convert to other crops.

  "Arroyo is applying her market-oriented dogma in agriculture, where it totally disregarded the importance of rice to the people, trying to replace it with cash crops to theoretically generate income that never happened," Marbella concluded.

(zie ook het persartikel: "Peasant group vows weekly protests vs rice crisis," door Abigail Kwok, INQUIRER.net, 14 juli 2008 (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080714-148400/Peasant-group-vows-%20weekly-protests-vs-rice-crisis).

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  "Fishers, peasants and workers reiterate calls to reject Doha trade deal in the WTO"
(Trade liberalization part of the problem and not the solution to global crises)
Stop the New Round Coalition-Philippines (Joseph Purugganan)
Press Release
19 July 2008


MANILA. July 19, 2008--A few days before an informal meeting of select trade ministers aimed at finalizing the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks in the World Trade Organization in Geneva, fishers, peasants and workers under the banner of the Stop the New Round Coalition reiterate their call to the Philippine government to reject the deal.

  "Small producers and workers in the Philippines are already carrying the burden of the multiple crises of sky rocketing food and fuel crises, of job losses and insecurity, and various threats posed by climate change." said Pablo Rosales, chairperson of Kilusang Mangingisda (Fisherfolk Movement) "The last thing we need is another international agreement signed by our government that would further undermine our already threatened livelihoods" added Rosales.

  The current round of WTO trade negotiations was launched in Doha in 2001 anchored on the promise that the development agenda would be at the core of the negotiations. For the past seven years however, the negotiations have become more about the ambitious agenda of developed countries to break open developing country markets for their agriculture, industrial goods and services rather than a genuine concern for development.

  "What are at stake in these negotiations are jobs and livelihoods of the most vulnerable sectors in the Philippines" said Renato Cruz, chairperson of Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA)

  "The policy of trade liberalization underpinning the WTO and various bilateral free trade agreements like JPEPA is a major cause of the food crisis. It is a policy that increases our dependency on food imports instead of developing our capacity to produce our own food. It is therefore part of the problem and not part of the solution" added Cruz

  "What we have been asking from the Philippine government is a reversal of this trade policy. What we have been demanding is more government support for agriculture and fisheries, particularly to small farmers and fishers,"

  "The Doha round is a bad deal. We urge our negotiators to examine closely what are at stake in these negotiations and do what is right for the country. They should reject this unfair and unjust deal" according to Rosales.

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  "The WTO’s Doha Round Will Not Solve the Global Food Crisis!
(Implement Genuine Agrarian Reform and National Industrialization!)
Asian Peasant Coalition
20 juli 2008


On the occasion of the WTOs Doha Round from July 21-25, 2008 in Geneva, we, members of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) with more than 15 million members from the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mongolia and Nepal, urge you to reject the claims by the leaders of the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), that the WTO Doha Round is a solution to the current crisis.[i]

  We believe the Doha Round as is currently envisioned will intensify the global food crisis by making food prices more volatile, increasing developing countries’ dependence on imports, and strengthening the control of multinational agribusiness in food and agriculture. Third world countries are likely to lose further policy space in their agriculture sector, which would in turn limit their ability to deal with the current crisis and to strengthen the livelihoods of small producers.

  The inability to manage the current food crisis is an illustration of the failure of the WTO in third world countries that in reality it is a plunder in Asian agriculture. We are calling for real solutions that will stabilize food production and distribution to meet the global demand for healthy, adequate, and affordable food. Governments must start to take a long-term view of the challenges facing agriculture. The recent report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD], endorsed by 60 countries, says, “Modern agriculture has brought significant increases in food production. But the benefits have been spread unevenly and have come at an increasingly intolerable price, paid by small-scale farmers, workers, rural communities and the environment”. Support has to be directed and genuinely implemented in the third world countries, especially in Asia.

  We believe what is needed to genuinely solve the food crisis is the following:

  1. Governments should implement genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization in order to resolve hunger and attain food security and food self-sufficiency. This includes a greater emphasis on policies that increase food sovereignty, encourage local investment in local markets, support sustainable small-scale farming, safeguard local production from dumping, and allow trade instruments such as quotas and tariffs. Some of these instruments are being proposed by a group of 46 developing countries—known as the G33—in the WTO’s negotiations on Special Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).

  2. The volatility of agricultural prices must be addressed through national policies and global actions to avert food crises and to ensure small producers a reliable and steady income. At the WTO, the African group has a long-standing proposal on the need to allow commodity-producing countries to make agreements among themselves in order to stabilize prices. This proposal deserves further attention.

  3. A reform of the food aid system to respond more rapidly and to allow greater flexibility in the delivery of food aid. Instead of dumping surplus agricultural production as “in kind” food aid, donors should provide cash to governments and aid agencies to buy local food.

  4. The “Aid for Trade” should not be used to promote the developed countries’ ‘free trade’ agenda. It could be of assistance to resource-starved underdeveloped countries such as the Philippines and other countries in Asia if aid is divorced from the ‘free trade’ economic agenda of rich donor countries and decisions over where it is channeled and how it is implemented are placed under the control of local shareholders.

  5. Northern countries will be maintaining their considerable monopoly advantages, especially through continued massive farm subsidies, even as they will get ever greater access to Southern agricultural market. This will mean the intensified dumping of Northern farm goods at heavily subsidized low prices which will result in the continued deterioration of Southern food production, loss of farm livelihoods, collapse of rural incomes and greater rural underdevelopment.

  6. Developing countries should not commit to financial services liberalization in the context of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) or bilateral and regional trade negotiations, as this can adversely impact farmers access to financial services such as insurance and credit.

 
Signed by the Members of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC):

  Philippines:
o Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)
o Pamalakaya-Pilipinas
o Amihan (National Federation of Peasant Women Network)
o Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA)
o National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW)

  Indonesia
o Allianceof Agrarian Reform Movement (AGRA)

  India
o Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum
o Indian Federation of Toiling Peasants (IFTOP)
o Andra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula (APVVU)
o Allianceof Peoples’ Movement

  Bangladesh
o BangladeshKrishok Federation
o BangladeshAgricultural Farm Labour Federation
o BangladeshAgricultural Labour Union
o BangladeshLandless Association

  Nepal
o All Nepal Peasants Federation
o All Nepal Women Association
o South Asian Peasant Coalition

  Malaysia
o Tenaganita

  Mongolia
o Federation of Agricultural Development

  Sri Lanka
o Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR)

 
[i]At the WTO’s General Council and Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC), the Director-General, Pascal Lamy, said “we have all witnessed the financial turbulence we are in and the hikes in energy and food prices that are affecting severely many of your countries. At a time when the world economy is in rough waters, concluding the Doha Round can provide a strong anchor.” Mr. Lamy has argued that the continuous expansion of multilateral trade is an insurance policy against market instabilities and financial turbulences. The President of the World Bank and former U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, argued in a speech at the Center for Global Development, that a key solution to the food crisis “is to break the Doha Development Agenda impasse.” He said, “A fairer and more open global trading system for agriculture will give more opportunities – and confidence – to African and other developing country farmers to expand production.” Similarly, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the IMF, wrote in an opinion in the Financial Times, “no one should forget that all countries rely on open trade to feed their populations. […] Completing the Doha round would play a critically helpful role in this regard, as it would reduce trade barriers and distortions and encourage agricultural trade.” Finally, the Secretary General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, wrote in an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune, “Governments around the world face weakening economies and soaring food prices. Amid the hand-wringing, an important and immediate step they can take to help would be to agree on a new multilateral trade deal.”

See
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/gc_chair_tnc_7may08_e.htm;
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news08_e/tnc_17apr08_e.htm;
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl88_e.htm;
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl85_e.htm;
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21711307~pagePK:34370~piPK:42770~theSitePK:4607,00.html;

Financial Times, COMMENT: A global approach is required to tackle high food prices, By Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Apr 21, 2008; International Herald Tribune, Trade Agreement Needed Now, By Angel Gurría

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  "Asian peasants unite against WTO; Peasant groups vindicated about destructive effects"
PRESS RELEASE
July 21, 2008
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)


As the WTO holds its mini-ministerial meeting in Geneva, Switzerland today, peasants from all over Asia, held concurrent protest actions in the Philippines, Indian states West Bengal, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, as well as in Jakarta, Indonesia, against the said trade body, particularly its liberalization policies of countries' agricultural sector.

  "The WTO is one of the most savage, heartless and inhumane institution at these modern times, as it aim to destroy poor countries' capacity to produce their own food, depress farmers economic well-being, and allow giant foreign corporations to exploit resources that should have been for the people," said Willy Marbella, KMP Deputy Secretary-General for Internal Affairs, in a phone patch, who's also attending the global people's actions in Switzerland.

  "Since we united with other Asian peasant groups in 2003 and drew from each country's experience, WTO policies have only caused disaster to farmers, as well as to poor consumers, as it paved the way for agricultural imports that shaken the local market and sideswiped the local counterparts, shattering the food security of countries," added Marbella.

  "Those so-called trade ministers talk only of how to more effectively exploit countries and oppress people. No one should believe a word they're saying as the only strong and valid basis for any agreement should be the living testimonies of the people's sectors such as the farmers, whose livelihood has been wrecked by WTO," Marbella lamented.

  KMP, with rural groups such as Pamalakaya-Pilipina s(fisherfolk) , UMA (agricultural workers), Amihan (peasant women), other poor sectors groups and supporters have been banging the gates of Department of Agriculture and other government offices to call for the pulling out of agriculture and the whole country from WTO since 1995 (the year Philippines entered the WTO).

  Even before, KMP led the formation of PUMALAG (anti-GATT) in 1994, which later became the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Mamamayan Laban sa Liberalisasyon ng Agrikultura. Subsequently, the peasant group led the formation of RESIST (against agro-chemical TNCs/MNCs) in 2001 and this year, the multi-sectoral alliance Bantay Bigas (against the rice crisis). The group claims that even during the GATT-years, considering the social and economic structure of agriculture in the country, entry to WTO would be detrimental to the people, particularly to the farmers and poor sectors.

  "The living proof is that what we feared more than a decade ago about the WTO entry has realized is the current rice crisis," Marbella noted.

  "Should we say more about the rice crisis? The Arroyo government caused the destruction of our food sufficiency and self-reliance by adhering to WTO, the people has limited or no access to cheaper rice, there are who resorted to root crops," added Marbella.

  MP and other peasant groups have been holding protest actions in front of NFA warehouses for 2 weeks, calling it their "Monday Habit," to call for the implementation of genuine agrarian reform as the only solution for the country's food sufficiency and self-reliance. Last Monday, they have been harassed by police intelligence agents, taking pictures of them, validating Arroyo's order to military and police intelligence forces to monitor unrest caused by the rice and economic crises, in general.

  "It looks like that Arroyo is just waiting for some kind of rice revolt before she'd do anything significant about the crisis," closed Marbella.

FIN