Global trade rules threaten farmers and food producers 1 November 2001
Global trade rules are damaging small farmers, local food producers and rural communities in the UK and across the world, Friends of the Earth warned in a new report today.
Developing countries face a double bind from the existing system. Rich northern countries can protect their own markets from cheap imports, while also taking advantage of export markets in developing countries. Most developed countries, particularly the US and the EU, now have high import tariffs on certain agricultural products. This prevents developing countries from selling in these markets. Both the EU and the US also subsidise their own farmers (through the Common Agricultural Policy, for example), and it is mainly the large farmers who get the subsidy. This results in over-production, falling prices and the dumping of products in developing countries. Meanwhile, developing countries in the South have been forced to accept liberalised trade rules. Tariff levels are generally low and subsidy levels almost non-existent.
Negotiations on agriculture through the WTO could make matters even worse. The WTO is a "free trade" organisation, which in theory would seek to remove all forms of agricultural subsidy and protection, driving many small producers across the world out of business. But the WTO is also biased towards rich and powerful countries: WTO negotiations may allow the US and EU to continue to protect their large farmers at everyone else's expense.
Global policy on food and farming must protect the rights of countries and communities to make decisions on how and where food is grown, to secure sufficient quantities of safe and healthy food, to manage the landscape, to protect the environment and to conserve wildlife. Subsidy and protection may be necessary to achieve these "public goods", but any new system of subsidy and tariffs must be weighted towards sustainable agriculture and small producers and must be fair to developing countries.
Friends of the Earth Trade Campaigner Tim Rice said: "Our report shows food and farming policy is loaded in favour of big farmers and transnational companies. That's bad for the developing world, for local communities and for the environment. Giving the WTO more power over agriculture could just make matters worse. Food and agriculture should be removed from the WTO altogether. The world needs multilateral trading rules designed to serve the interests of farmers, the environment, food safety and health. These rules should be administered through a reformed and strengthened United Nations."
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