viernes, julio 03, 2009

WHAT HAVE FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS GOT TO DO WITH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE?

From the Bilaterals.org web site



Agriculture & food

Bilateral free trade and investment agreements seriously impact the lives of farmers, and consumers of food. With World Trade Organization (WTO) talks on agriculture now at a virtual standstill, bilateral and regional free trade negotiations are increasingly being used to further liberalize farming sectors, or in the hope of gaining access to new markets for agricultural exports.

Agribusiness lobbies have been generally critical of the tendency of bilateral FTAs to exclude sensitive food and agricultural products. Now, FTAs are often used to try to force open markets for agricultural products which have been exempted in previous trade negotiations, and to also target non-tariff barriers like product standards which relate to food.

Not only do many FTAs include sections on agriculture, but, like the WTO, they often include provisions or chapters on sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) which constrain the power of local communities and national governments to set their own standards in relation to biosafety, food safety and other health concerns. Meanwhile the power and control of transnational agribusiness corporations over seeds and biodiversity is advanced through WTO-plus intellectual property provisions (see the Intellectual Property Rights section), through investment liberalization provisions which facilitate corporate/overseas investor takeovers of land and domestic food production (see Investment) .

The free trade agenda in agriculture has been set by and for corporate agribusiness. Small farmers all over the world are reeling as tariffs are slashed and subsidies and price controls, if they ever existed, are cut. Meanwhile subsidized US and EU farm goods are able to flood local markets and undercut what can be locally produced. It is not surprising that Korean farmers have been at the forefront of the mobilizations against the Korea-Chile FTA, the WTO and the US-Korea FTA nor that campesinos in Mexico, Central and South America have mobilized against the WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, the FTAA and various bilateral free trade agreements.

Mexican campesinos’ experience of NAFTA after fifteen years leaves them with no illusions as to the promises about free trade in agriculture, and they have been at the forefront of resistance to this agreement. Since NAFTA, floods of cheap, subsidized, and often genetically-modified U.S. corn have entered Mexico, sold at prices below the cost of production, with which campesinos cannot compete. This has led to massive displacement, poverty and hunger, pushing people into the cities and maquiladoras (sweatshop factories), and forcing many to risk their lives crossing the increasingly militarized border into the USA in search of work.

While the US and EU demand that others open their markets up to US and European goods, services and investment, their position on agriculture in bilateral free trade agreements has fuelled criticism that Washington and Brussels say one thing about free trade, but practices another.

For example, the US sugar industry successfully lobbied so that US trade negotiators excluded sugar from the FTA Agreement with Australia, the world’s fourth largest sugar producing nation. The US refusal to open up its market to Australian sugar imports once again called into question Washington’s double standards as it demands liberalization from other countries but maintains protection for its corporate farmers. Likewise, in both the Australia FTA and in other FTAs with agricultural exporting countries, the US has made minimal concessions when it comes to reducing tariffs on agricultural imports (like meat and dairy, in the Australian case).

Agriculture has been controversial in other bilateral free trade agreements. Korean farmers led sustained opposition to the FTAs which Seoul signed with Chile and the US, concerned about the impact of floods of cheaper farm imports on their livelihoods (in the latter, Washington insisted on Korea agreeing to completely free trade in rice). Following the 2003 FTA with China, in which tariffs were removed from a significant number of fruit and vegetables from China, causing a flood of cheaper imports into Thailand, Thai farmers and others have questioned the sense of agricultural liberalization through FTAs when they face being displaced and their livelihoods destroyed by such deals.

Governments renounce their right to control food exports and imports when they sign FTAs with the USA and the EU. This is also spurring resistance. For example, recent mass mobilizations in South Korea have brought safe food concerns to the streets in opposition to the resumption of US beef imports in conformity with the US-Korea FTA. Via Campesina, a global peasant and small farmers’ movement, has mobilized against the corporate takeover of agriculture, biotechnology, the WTO and other free trade agreements, and in support of food sovereignty. Each country, it argues, should have the right to define its own agricultural policies in order to meet its domestic needs.

This should include the right to prohibit imports to protect domestic production and genuine agrarian reform to provide peasants and small/medium-sized producers with access to land. At its fifth international conference in Maputo, Mozambique in November 2008, Via Campesina committed to redouble its struggle against FTAs and EPAs, after earlier calling for the removal of all negotiation in the areas of food production and marketing from the WTO and from all regional and bilateral agreements.

last update: April 2009


SOURCE:
http://www.bilaterals.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=32

Etiquetas:

4 Comentarios:

Anonymous Anónimo dijo...

Good day !.
You may , perhaps curious to know how one can reach 2000 per day of income .
There is no initial capital needed You may begin to receive yields with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you need
The firm represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

Its head office is in Panama with affiliates everywhere: In USA, Canada, Cyprus.
Do you want to become a happy investor?
That`s your choice That`s what you really need!

I`m happy and lucky, I started to take up income with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to choose a correct companion who uses your money in a right way - that`s it!.
I take now up to 2G every day, and my first deposit was 1 grand only!
It`s easy to start , just click this link http://uteqakex.100megsfree5.com/qylehyz.html
and go! Let`s take this option together to feel the smell of real money

12:17 a.m.  
Anonymous Anónimo dijo...

Hi !.
You may , probably very interested to know how one can collect a huge starting capital .
There is no initial capital needed You may start to get income with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you need
The company represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with affiliates around the world.
Do you want to become a happy investor?
That`s your chance That`s what you desire!

I feel good, I started to take up income with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to select a proper companion utilizes your savings in a right way - that`s the AimTrust!.
I earn US$2,000 per day, and my first investment was 500 dollars only!
It`s easy to join , just click this link http://ekecujas.freewaywebhost.com/izypygeq.html
and lucky you`re! Let`s take our chance together to get rid of nastiness of the life

5:17 a.m.  
Anonymous Anónimo dijo...

Hi!
You may probably be very interested to know how one can manage to receive high yields on investments.
There is no initial capital needed.
You may commense earning with a money that usually goes
on daily food, that's 20-100 dollars.
I have been participating in one project for several years,
and I'm ready to let you know my secrets at my blog.

Please visit blog and send me private message to get the info.

P.S. I make 1000-2000 per day now.

http://theinvestblog.com [url=http://theinvestblog.com]Online Investment Blog[/url]

8:20 a.m.  
Anonymous Anónimo dijo...

Hello!
You may probably be very curious to know how one can manage to receive high yields on investments.
There is no need to invest much at first.
You may commense to get income with a money that usually goes
for daily food, that's 20-100 dollars.
I have been participating in one company's work for several years,
and I'll be glad to let you know my secrets at my blog.

Please visit my pages and send me private message to get the info.

P.S. I make 1000-2000 per day now.

http://theinvestblog.com [url=http://theinvestblog.com]Online Investment Blog[/url]

3:41 p.m.  

Publicar un comentario

Suscribirse a Comentarios de la entrada [Atom]

<< Página Principal