trade

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Food sovereignty be established as international rule for trade
Akahata editorial

The World Trade Organization's Doha Round to seek further liberalization of trade was suspended after the breakdown of ministerial talks of five countries and the EU on July 24, and reportedly it will be frozen for a few years.

The breakdown of the trade talks is mainly caused by differences regarding agriculture. This illustrates how unreasonable it is for the organization to force its member states to fully liberalize agricultural trade in disregard of their different conditions.

Underlying free trade-cure-all argument

In the agricultural negotiations, the conflicting interests of exporting, importing, developed, and developing countries are intricately interwoven. The negotiations have faced rough going because of the increase of serious contradictions regarding agriculture and food in the world under the WTO system.

For 10 years since the WTO was established, while major exporting countries such as the United States as well as multinational corporations have enjoyed enormous benefits, importing countries and developing countries have received a serious blow. Small-scale farmers throughout the world, including farmers in major exporting countries have been hurt, and the food self-sufficiency rate in many developing countries has decreased. While export-oriented industrialized low-cost agriculture flourishes, food safety and environmental protection have been left on a back burner. These problems of agriculture have often been addressed by U.N. institutions.

In Japan, imports of rice and other agricultural products have rapidly increased, seriously damaging its agriculture system and farmers and further lowering its food self-sufficiency rate. Now it is clear how detrimental to agriculture the free trade-cure-all argument is. Developing countries suffering under the WTO system are united in protest against the unfairness, and farmers and consumers of those countries are saying, "No to Liberalization!" In developed countries also, movements to protect family farming and food safety have increased, restraining the move forward further liberalization.

The U.S. government's highhandedness is another major factor in the breakdown of negotiations. It urged member states to "boldly" lower tariffs on agricultural products. The U.S. demand could devastate Japan's production of rice and other agricultural products. On the other hand, the U.S. persisted in preserving its agricultural subsidies that enable the dumping of surplus agricultural products at well below production costs. Many countries have severely criticized the U.S. for distorting the world agricultural market, but the U.S. rejected their call for reductions in its agricultural subsidies. It is natural for the international community not to allow such a self-righteous attitude of the U.S., sticking only to its own interest in disregard of the other countries' need to preserve their agriculture, to continue.

At the same time, the freeze of the Doha Round indicates that the arbitrary and highhanded demands of the U.S. and other major powers are no longer readily accepted as had been before.

Although the Japanese government has called for the "coexistence of a wide variety of agriculture" rejecting the U.S. demands of extreme liberalization, it has hinted that it might give in depending on the position of exporting countries. Assuming this as a premise, the Japanese government has pushed ahead with domestic agricultural "reform". It is impossible, however, to maintain a "coexistence of a wide variety of agriculture," as the Japanese government has called for, within the framework of the WTO that gives top priority to expansion of trade. In other words, without food sovereignty - the right of nations to independently decide their own food and agricultural policies - established, such coexistence cannot be truly secured.

Establishing food sovereignty as world trend

Originally shared by people protesting against the WTO, the idea of establishing food sovereignty has become a world trend as was expressed by the overwhelming support for it in the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

As the 21 century world is alarmed by a tightened food supply due to the increase in population and constraints of the global environment, it is indispensable to develop sustainable agricultural production based on the specific conditions of each country. Trade rules are required to be changed accordingly. Taking advantage of the fact that trade negotiations are now frozen, governments and peoples are called on to cooperate in order to fully review the agreement on agriculture and to consider establishing trade rules to guarantee food sovereignty.
- Akahata, July 29, 2006