BY MATTHEW DIMMOCK
BANGKOK — An estimated 3000 farmers and activists converged on the US embassy and European Union Commission in Bangkok on September 9 to demand an immediate end to trade liberalisation and unfair agricultural trade rules, which favour the developed countries.
The protests coincide with demonstrations in cities across the world on the eve of the fifth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), held in Cancun, Mexico, from September 10-14.
Demonstrators from diverse backgrounds united in a potent show of strength, including from the Assembly of the Poor, the Slum Community Network, Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Northern Peasants' Federation, consumer groups, non-government development organisations and trade unions, as wells as AIDS activists, students, farmers, labourers and small businesses.
Demonstrators gathered in Bangkok's Lumpini Park before marching to the US embassy and EU Commission to deliver an open letter demanding the removal of food and agriculture from the control of the WTO and a thorough review of the environmental and social impact of existing trade rules and agreements.
In solidarity with poor farmers and others adversely affected by the WTO, demonstrators yelled "WTO get out!" and held aloft banners and flags declaring "Free people from forced trade", "People before profits" and "Stop US power in the WTO". One farmer tied himself to a cross of rice stems, with his mouth gagged shut, to symbolise the powerlessness farmers across the developing world feel.
Kingkorn Narintornkul, coordinator of Thai Action on Globalisation stated, "Thailand's poor and farmers from many parts of the country travelled all night to come to participate in this demonstration — more than we expected."
At the EU Commission, demonstrators managed to spend about 15 minutes with first secretary Carlos Acosta, who listened to farmers' complaints that they can no longer make a living due to the subsidies paid by First World governments to their farmers, and food dumping. AIDS activists explained that people are dying because they cannot afford the ludicrous prices demanded by multinational drug companies and because they are denied access to cheaper medication through the WTO's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
In response, Acosta expressed surprise that policies espoused by rich nations and the multilateral institutions and organisations they control are causing such harm to the poor populations of the world. However, without the slightest reflection on the demonstrators' testimonies, he continued chanting the mantra of so-called "free trade" by confirming his belief that trade liberalisation will improve the lives of poor people.
Poor farmers devastated
In contrast, demonstrators were met with a token reception at a heavily guarded US embassy. A representative of the ambassador was sent out to receive the letter but was in no mood for discussion, quickly scurrying back inside. The leader of a farmers' group, Bamrung Kayotha, pointed out that "you can tell which countries are most hated by the number of police they have outside their building".
Thailand's government is part of a broad coalition of developing countries, led by India and Brazil, formed to counter the economic muscle that the US and EU enjoy within WTO forum. Trade in food and agriculture is the most contentious issue, as a majority of the developing world's population depends on agriculture for survival. Of most concern is the enormous subsidies the US and EU governments hand out to their farming industries, depressing world prices and making poor Third World farmers unable to compete.
Squeezed out of their livelihoods, poor-country farmers are often unable to feed themselves and their families. They become dependent on imported foods or aid handouts, which in a dark twist of fate are often the surpluses produced from the First World as a result of these subsidies, then dumped on developing countries as aid to prevent market flooding.
According to Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank, the US spends up to US$4 billion per year subsidising its 25,000 cotton farmers, more than the value of what is produced, while the US and Europe subsidise their cows at $2 per day, eclipsing the income of poor African farmers. Stiglitz puts it bluntly: "You wonder, what would life be like if you were treated as well as Europe treats its cows?"
In Thailand, the impact of these subsidies and enforced trade liberalisation have forced thousands of farmers and their families to migrate to Bangkok in search of increasingly scarce factory or labouring work. These migrants are often forced to live in slum areas or wander the streets homeless. Displaying little understanding of such problems, or compassion for its human victims, Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej recently announced that "homeless drifters are a nuisance and should be treated like stray dogs". This coincided with a recently finalised plan to "sanitise" Bangkok's streets in the lead up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in October.
Samak stated that "if we help them by feeding them and providing shelter, more will leave their homes, come to the city and drift around... In doing so, they take advantage of society. We should send them home."
The need to hide the "human evidence" is proof that policies championed by APEC and the WTO run contrary to their increasingly stale rhetoric of improving the lives of the poor. Rather than making issues of poverty and homelessness a priority in the coming APEC talks, delegates, including US President George Bush and Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, prefer to continue implementing devastating neoliberal economic policies without having to witness the ill effects such policies cause.
Biopiracy
Of particular concern to Thailand is the threat of "biopiracy". An US researcher is currently developing a "new" strand of the country's indigenous jasmine rice using genetic-engineering technology. He hopes to produce a strain of jasmine rice suitable for cultivation in the US. Eager to cash in on the lucrative world market for jasmine rice, several US biotech companies have expressed interest in the work, hoping to patent and market the genteically modified jasmine rice, in effect stealing it from Thai farmers, who consider it a product and symbol of indigenous knowledge and tradition.
Not surprisingly, the work has been met with fierce criticism and protest in Thailand. Jasmine rice represents some 90% of Thailand's rice exports to the US. If a genetically modified version is produced and grown in the US, it would represent a major market loss for Thailand. Small-scale farmers, already struggling for survival, will be affected the most.
As Lai Lerngram, a farmer from Surin province in north-eastern Thailand, stated: "To patent jasmine rice or to misuse its name is plundering from the poor. Anyone who would steal from poor Thai farmers is really shameless."
Witoon Lianchamroon from Biothai, a Bangkok-based non-government organisation working on biodiversity issues, points out Washington's hypocrisy: "The US is complaining about bootleg music cassettes in Thailand while simultaneously robbing our farmers' knowledge and heritage."
In 1997, Texas-based biotech company RiceTec patented, and now markets, a brand of rice called "Jasmati", hijacking the high marketing qualities of Thailand's jasmine rice and India's basmati rice. In reality, Jasmati rice bears no relation to jasmine rice or basmati rice. The misleading of consumers into believing they are buying a combination of jasmine and basmati rice has already adversely affected Thai exports of jasmine rice to the US.
RiceTec has also patented a Texas-grown version of India's basmati rice, severely undercutting India's traditional basmati rice exports, again hitting poor farmers, who cannot compete with powerful biotech firms from the North. RiceTec is even markets its GM rice as superior in quality to the original and natural Indian strain.
HIV/AIDS in Thailand is a big problem and Thai researchers have long been searching for ways to combat the disease. One team was focusing on Thai "bitter gourd" (Momordica spp), which contains properties that are effective in treating the disease. Recently, however, a group of US scientists copied their work and patented the active protein containing the beneficial properties. Meanwhile, US pharmaceutical companies still expect developing countries such as Thailand to fork out exorbitant amounts of money for their patented AIDS medication.
Branding and profiting from the biodiversity and indigenous knowledge of the Third World is colonialism under a new name. Just as colonial powers in the 19th century exploited the natural resources of their colonies to establish global trade empires in rubber, cotton, sugar and so on, today's biotech corporations are stealing and establishing monopolies on the natural resources of the South, assisted by WTO agreements such as TRIPS.
In the face of such plundering, developing countries are uniting to refuse to accept the imperialist and protectionist objectives of rich-country government, embodied in the biased agreements and policies of the WTO.
[Matthew Dimmock is a freelance journalist currently based in Thailand.]
From Green Left Weekly, September 24, 2003.
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