Saying that the current integration of agriculture in ASEAN countries has not benefitted small men and women farmers, the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) called on governments, NGOs, business and farmers’ groups to work together in a participatory manner to develop a strategic policy for agriculture that integrates trade and development.
“Unabated and unchecked, the integration will further displace us, lose our livelihoods, and lose the rural heritage and the culture of agriculture communities in Southeast Asia,” AFA warned in a paper presented by Mr. Muhammad Nuruddin, Executive Committee Member of AFA and Secretary General of Aliansi Petani Indonesia (API), during the Panel Session of the 6th ASEAN People’s Assembly (APA) entitled “Towards Fair Trade In An Integrating ASEAN: Perspectives of Workers, Farmers and Informal Sector” held in EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City, Philippines in October 25, 2007.
It added that the strategic policy can first be done at the national level, then levelled-off and harmonized at the regional level. “In the process, we have an agricultural policy that is harmonized at both national and regional levels,” said AFA.
The panel was organized within the context of the ongoing liberalization among the ASEAN Member Countries, especially in the area of agriculture trade and service sector liberalization, which are least discussed in ASEAN trade liberalization and regional integration, yet have serious social ramifications on small men and women farmers, on workers and on the service sector, both formal and informal.
It was aimed at identifying what governments, trade unions, and small farmers can do to ensure that any process of regional integration and liberalization is equitable and inclusive, how the pitfalls of liberalization be avoided, and what lessons can be learned from the practices of various groups and other governments on how to meet the challenges and limitations of trade and service sector liberalization.
AFA co-organized the panel with other regional organizations such as, ASEAN Service Employees Trade Union Council (ASETUC), Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA), Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), Homebased Workers’ Networks in Southeast Asia (Homenet Southeast Asia), and Union Network International -Asia Pacific Region (UNI-APRO).
Other panel speakers were: Mr. Wigberto Tanada, FTA (on fair trade), Ms. Alice Chang, UNI-APRO (on workers), and Ms. Rosalinda Ofreneo, Homenet Southeast Asia (on informal sector).
The panel session was one of the concurrent panel sessions conducted during the 6th ASEAN Peoples’ Assembly, with the theme, “ASEAN at 40: Realizing the Peoples’ Expectations”.
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