By Thomas Fuller |Â International Herald Tribune
Published: August 8, 2006
BANGKU, Thailand Far from the brilliant green rice paddies that spread across the fertile flatlands here, economists in Europe have calculated that Thailand’s farmers would be among the biggest winners if failed global trade talks were revived and succeed.
By one estimate, the Thai economy would gain $1.2 billion annually if governments from Japan to Europe and the United States removed their barriers to rice, sugar and manufactured goods.
But Jampa Tongprasert, a wiry farmer whose weather-worn, powerful hands are testament to 50 years of working the soil, is not impressed. “I’ve never heard of it,” Jampa said, referring to the World Trade Organization and the collapse of world trade talks late last month.
Neither has Thanu Jaengprajak, who heads a rice cooperative with 231 members. “I haven’t followed it,” he said of the trade negotiations.
In Thailand’s rice heartland – which was supposed to have benefited most from a global trade deal – there is indifference, a lack of awareness and skepticism about negotiations that began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. Economists and trade officials say this is a public relations problem for supporters of overhauling the global trading system.
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