TASK FORCE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
22 February 2007
We are seriously concerned with the visit of WTO Director General Pascal Lamy in the Philippines. Coming right after his visit in Indonesia, his Philippine tour aims at increasing pressure on the Philippine government to abandon its strong position on SP/SSM. His visit clearly reflects the use of increasingly manipulative and undemocratic processes in the WTO which are designed to railroad proposals of developing countries to address their food security and rural development concerns.
We reiterate our stand that the WTO is a neo-liberal instrument of the rich countries to promote and expand their economic, trade and investments interests by forcibly opening markets in the developing countries. The decade-old implementation of the WTO agreements is a testimony to how the livelihoods and food security of the millions of impoverished people in the developing world have been sacrificed in favor of big corporate interests in the rich countries.
The so-called resumption of the Doha Round merely signifies that a minimum level of unity has been reached between the two major players in the WTO, the US and the EU, specifically on the issue of subsidy reduction by the US and the rate of tariff cuts acceptable to the EU. All others, particularly the developing countries have remained spectators in the game, even as their participation has been increasingly marginalized and their various proposals watered down. Hence, it would be unwise for developing countries like the Philippines to insist that they would gain considerably from this current round.
If at all, given the anti-development and anti-poor agenda of the Doha Round, the Filipino people, in particular the poor farmers, artisanal fishers, agricultural workers, indigenous peoples, women, urban poor, consumers and workers would see the further erosion of their rights under the WTO. The Doha Round targets the full liberalization of agriculture, which means the further reduction of tariffs from their already very low bound rates; the binding and reduction of industrial and non-agriculture (fishery) tariffs and the liberalization of services. This would mean more displacement of farmers and farmworkers, declining rural incomes and increased unemployment. This would mean , too, the collapse of domestic industries and the further de-industrialization of our country. The people’s access to basic services would likewise be increasingly undermined.
We therefore call on the Philippine government and other governments of developing countries to reject the Doha Round! Put an immediate stop to on-going negotiations that would seal the further liberalization of our agriculture, industry, services and the economy in general.
No to the Doha Round!
Go home Lamy! We don’t need the WTO!
Defend our food sovereignty!
WTO out of Agriculture! DISMANTLE WTO!
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