Who Defends the Interests of the Small Farmers of the Poor Countries at the World Trade Organisation ?

It is certainly not the Director General of the WTO, Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, who was heard to say in his policy address to at the World Food and Farming Congress, in London on the 25^th November, 2002:

  “Trade liberalization in agriculture is probably the single most important contribution the multilateral trading system can make to help developing countries, including the poorest among them, to trade their way out of poverty.”

 Cf. (http://www.wto.org/french/news_f/spsp_f/spsp06_f.htm

How can anyone these days still declare such a falsehood?

If this man is sincere, if he really believes what he says is true, we can presume that he has never met the small farmers of the poor countries of the world; this despite the heavy responsibility he has accepted and the negotiations on agriculture begun at the WTO. If he is sincere, we can see that this man is incapable of seeing beyond the confines of his ideology of liberalisation without frontiers. However, if we can accept that he does not listen to the words of French academics, such as Mazoyer or Berthelot, it is difficult to accept that he has not read the book of the Nobel Economic Prize writer Professor Joseph Stiglitz, “Globalization and its Discontents”. This professor, who resigned from his position as Chief Economist and Vice President of the World Bank in 1999, writes in his book: “Today globalisation does not work. It does not work for the poor. It does not work for the environment. It does not work for the stability of the world “.

However, he probably knows that what he says is false. So we can conclude that the poor countries, especially the small farmers of these small countries, will find it difficult to make their voice heard in the WTO. It is to be feared that if all the members of the WTO are equal (one vote per country), some are more equal than others!

How could one think that it is enough to introduce competition against the farmers of the developed nations – each one of whom produces in one day the equivalent of 500 small farmers in the Sahel – so that everything will fall into place as if by a miracle? At the end of his conference the Director General of the WTO concludes: “Dismantling trade barriers and trade-distorting subsidies will help boost agricultural production in countries where food can be produced most efficiently and in a sustainable way”

And if, Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, independence in food supply were a right for each state: so would be the right to feed oneself as also the right not to depend on the good will of a foreign power to survive.

As if by chance (!) we come across the ideas of the experts of the F.A.O.:

"If the real prices of foodstuffs do not increase … most countries will be able to import enough cereals to satisfy their demand.” And the traditional cereal-exporting nations, such as the USA, the European Union, Canada, Australia and Argentina, will be more than happy to sell their cereals and all the products of their agro-alimentary industries.

To reach their ends, these countries have a strong ally in the person of Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi. In his conference he explains that the purpose of the negotiations going on at the WTO, following the meeting in Doha, “is the most ambitious and the most extensive commercial negotiation ever undertaken.”

It is said that at the WTO all the countries are equal. Only the USA can mobilise 1000 experts as against one for Burkina Faso! How then can these poor countries be present on all fronts: agriculture, agro-alimentary, services (such as education, health, telecommunications…), industrial products, environment, the debt, transfer of technology…

The negotiations should be completed by January 2005. Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi does not hesitate to speak of “a merciless calendar”.  Yes indeed, no pity for the weak. The liberalisation proposed by Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi is more like the liberty of the fox in the chicken house!

P-S: You are invited to confer to:  Quelle stratégie pour lutter contre la pauvreté? by Maurice Oudet.

Koudougou, the 30/11/2002

World Day against the Death Penalty

To refuse to protect the agriculture of the poor countries

is to condemn to a life of misery

800 million peasant farmers throughout the world;

of whom many will die from malnutrition, sickness and suicide.