September 10, 2003
IBON Foundation, Philippines
References: Ms Rosario Bella Guzman
(Executive Director) Mr Antonio Tujan (Research Director)
Governments position in agriculture
negotiations in the on-going Cancun Ministerial does not serve the long-term
interests of small Filipino farmers.
The issue in the World Trade
Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is not simply leveling the
playing field, according to IBON Research Director Antonio Tujan Jr. He argued
that even if rich countries reduce or eliminate their farm subsidies and
tariffs, the imbalances in world agricultural trade would still remain.
Even if the US or the European Union (EU)
comply with their commitments, cutthroat competition in world agricultural
trade will still be to the gross disadvantage of the Philippines. This is
because there is an uneven development of agriculture in rich and poor
countries, Tujan said. Philippine
agriculture, according to Tujan, is primarily subsistence, household, and
backward. On the contrary, First World agriculture is highly commercialized and
industrialized.
Thus, Tujan argued, all the talks on
reducing government farm support in all countries on the ground that they
distort trade will fall the hardest on small Filipino farmers. Government
support in the form of subsidies in the production, pricing, marketing, direct
payments, etc., must be encouraged not only in strengthening the viability of
local agriculture but more importantly, in protecting national food security, Tujan
stressed. He added that even in rich
countries, small farming families heavily depend on government subsidy and they
should be entitled to such support.
Governments proposal to use special
safeguard mechanism in case rich countries refuse to substantially reduce their
tariffs and subsidies are not enough to solve the problem of unfair
agricultural trade. The only protection that will benefit local farmers involves
instituting long-term or permanent quantitative restrictions, tariffs, and
other forms of restriction, said Tujan.
Tujan pointed out that the reforms that the Philippines wants to institute in the WTO pact on agriculture are meaningless. These proposals will not really correct the structural flaws of the AoA or the concept of agriculture globalization, he said. That the rich countries are even resisting such shallow proposals should compel small farmers in the Philippines and other poor countries to further intensify their campaign for the WTO to be taken out of agriculture.