Agricultural trade and food security
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The five points of AttacIn response to the move by industrialised country governments to push for a new round at the WTO, economists linked to the global anti-corporate movement called the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (Attac) put out an appeal to the WTO to define five points, in place of the points of Singapore95:
From this alternative list we can see that food, health and the environment are key concerns. All of these are interlinked when considering food security, since access to productive resources, the nutritional value of food and the ability of people to physically absorb the nutrients provided by the food need to be considered holistically when talking about food security. There are reams of suggestions from around the world supporting these and other basic demands. Another international network of organisations argues that “WTO Agreements must not apply to issues critical to human or planetary welfare, such as food and water, basic social services, health and safety, and animal protection”.96 The fear is that including these social rights and needs in trade agreements opens the space for further corporate control over the basic necessities of life. The argument from resource poor producers around the world to remove agriculture from the WTO negotiations is primarily based on the reality of increasing control of corporations over food production and trade. This control consequently undermines local production both by cheaper imports of poor quality subsidised food and the reorientation of production away from meeting local food needs and towards cash crops for export97. At the core of this alternative position is the concept of food sovereignty, which has been defined quite simply as “the supremacy of food production and consumption over trade and economic policies”.98 The basic demands, therefore, are:
1 FAO (1996) “World Food Summit Plan of Action” 2 Novib (2001) Towards food security: Novib’s position on food security and lessons learned. Novib, The Hague, p.7. 3 Amartya Sen (1982) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, chap 1. 4 Sen, p.51 5 FAO (1996) “Rome Declaration on World Food Security”, p.1 6 Peter Einarsson (2000) Agricultural trade policy as if food security and ecological sustainability mattered: Review and analysis of alternative proposals for the renegotiation of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture. Global Study No 5. Forum Syd, Stockholm, p.10 7 Paul Brassley (1997) Agricultural Economics and the CAP: An Introduction. Blackwell Science, Oxford, p.86. 8 Einarsson, p.11-12 9 Throughout the paper, ‘developing countries’ includes least developed countries. 10 Brassley, p.91 11 John Madeley (2000) Trade and hunger – an overview of case studies on the impact of trade liberalisation on food security. Global Study No 4. Forum Syd, Stockholm, p.14 12 ETC Group (2001) “Globalization, Inc. Concentration in Corporate Power: The Unmentioned Agenda”. ETC Group Communique, No 71. 13 Susan George (1977) How the Other Half Dies: The Real Reasons for World Hunger. Penguin, Harmondsworth, p.139. 14 Brassley, p.92 15 A low price elasticity of demand means that, while there is an inverse relationship between price and demand (the cheaper a product is, the more likely people will be to buy it), the movement in demand does not move as rapidly as the opposite movement in price. This is the case for food and agricultural products because people have to eat regardless of the cost of food. Likewise, once people have enough food to eat, they are not likely to buy much more even if the price is very low. 16 See Harriet Friedmann (1994) “Distance and Durability: Shaky Foundations of the World Food Economy”, in P. McMicheal (ed.) The Global Restructuring of Agro-Food Systems. Cornell University, Ithaca. 17 See Sen, pp.160-62 18 Sen, p.166 19 Einarsson, p.7. 20 Nicola Borregaard & Mark Halle (2001) “Striking a Balance for Trade and Sustainable Development”, WSSD Opinion, May 2001 (IIED), p.3 21 Einarsson, p.34 22 Walden Bello (2000) “Why Reform of the WTO is the Wrong Agenda” (mimeo), p.5-6 23 Dot Keet (2000) Alternatives to the WTO regime: a Discussion Paper on Tactics and Strategies. AIDC, Cape Town, p.24 24 Bello, p.6 25 Einarsson, p.14 26 Keet, p.16 27 European Research Office (2001) “EU Positions on WTO Agreement on Agriculture Negotiations, update Oct 2001”, p.4. 28 Keet, p.16 29 WTO (4 Oct 2001) “WTO Agriculture Negotiations: The issues, and where we are now”. Briefing document, Information and Media Relations Division, WTO Secretariat, p.12. 30 Bello, p.10 31 Brassley, p.89-90 32 AgriBusiness Examiner, No 132, 8 Nov 2001 33 Richard Perkins (2001) Sustainable development should be the objective for a new Agreement on Agriculture. WWF, Gland, p.3 34 Fischler, EU DG Agriculture Press Statement, 17 August 2001 35 Einarsson, p.14 36 Kato Lambrechts (Christian Aid, UK) (2001) “The WTO Agreement on Agriculture: Implications for South Africa”, p.6. Paper presented to CRLS conference on International Agricultural Trade and Rural Livelihoods, Somerset West, 9-11 October 2001 37 Brassley, p.129 38 Einarsson, p.24 39 Einarsson, p.24 40 Brassley, p.130 41 Einarsson, p.24 42 ERO & Oxfam UK (2001) “The Future of the Common Agricultural Policy: Implications for Developing Countries”. ERO, Brussels, p.4 44 European Commission DG VI Agriculture (9 Oct 2000) “Note to the attention of the 133 Committee: Outline of the EC Comprehensive Negotiating Proposal” 45 European Research Office (2000) “The EU Position on the WTO Agreement on Agriculture”. ERO, Brussels, p.1 46 WTO (1994) Agreement on Agriculture, Article 20 47 WTO Committee on Agriculture “WTO African Group: Joint Proposal on the Negotiations on Agriculture”. G/AG/NG/W/142, 23 March 2001 48 WTO Committee on Agriculture, G/AG/NG/W/11, 16 June 2000 49 WTO Committee on Agriculture, G/AG/NG/W/35, 22 September 2000 50 WTO Committee on Agriculture, G/AG/NG/W/54, 10 November 2000 51 NAI, Part VI, paras 56-60. (www.mapstrategy.com) 52 Gerda van Dijk (Director: International Trade, NDA) (2001) “Trade and Agriculture: Government’s Vision and Negotiating Positions”, p.7. Paper presented to CRLS conference on International Agricultural Trade and Rural Livelihoods, Somerset West, 9-11 October 2001 53 Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs (1998) Agricultural Policy in South Africa: A discussion document. NDA, Pretoria. 54 MALA, “Agricultural Policy”, p.8 55 Sen, p.5 56 MALA, “Agricultural Policy”, p.10 57 MALA, “Agricultural Policy”, p.8-9 58 MALA, “Agricultural Policy”, p.19 59 MALA, “Agricultural Policy”, p.26 60 National Department of Agriculture (2001) “Draft position paper on agriculture and food security”, for presentation at WSSD SADC Prepcom, 3-5 September 2001 61 Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs (2001) “Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development: A Sub-Programme of the Land Redistribution Programme” (land.pwv.gov.za/ redistribution/lrad.htm) 62 LRAD, p.3 63 David Mayson (2001) “A critical analysis of the 2001/2002 budget for land reform in South Africa”, draft. SPP, Cape Town, p.3 65 Dept of Finance (2001) “2001 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement” (www.finance.gov.za/ documents/mtbps/2001/) 66 Lambrechts, p.17-18 67 Mayson, pp.5-9 68 See Stephen Greenberg (2000) “Land Reform Overhaul”, Land & Rural Digest No 13, pp.21-23 69 Statistics SA and NDA (2000) An overview of the agricultural sector in South Africa. (draft report), p.57 70 Xolani Xundu, “Provinces’ spending is lagging”, Business Day, 2 November 2001, p.12 71 Lambrechts, p.1 72 Van Dijk, p.4. 73 Unless otherwise noted, the following points are taken from case studies detailed in Madeley (2000) 74 Phil Raikes & Peter Gibbon (2000) “‘Globalisation’ and African Export Agriculture”, Journal of Peasant Studies Vol 27 No 2, p.72 75 Andrew Shepherd & Stefano Farolfi (1999) Export crop liberalization in Africa: A review. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No 135. FAO, Rome, p.29 & 58 76 Shepherd & Farolfi, p.63 77 Borregaard & Halle, p.4 78 Shepherd & Farolfi, p.66 79 Henry Bernstein (1990) “Agricultural ‘Modernisation’ and the Era of Structural Adjustment: Observations on Sub-Saharan Africa”, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol 18 No 1, p.9 80 Raikes & Gibbon, p.75 81 Borregaard & Halle, p.2 82 Borregaard & Halle, p.2 83 Alec Erwin, quoted in John Fraser “SA fears Afghan war could hurt trade round”, Business Day, 31 Oct 2001, p.2. 84 Bello, p.13 85 Porto Alegre 2002 Site Update Newsletter, No 13, Oct 30, 2001. This is also evident in the widening of the definition of ‘terrorism’, internationally as well as in South Africa, to include those who seek to destabilise or disrupt the smooth functioning of government. See, for example, Simphiwe Xako, Tamar Kahn and SAPA “UN urges SA to finalise law”, Business Day, 20 Sept 2001, p.2 86 Tettah Hormeku (2001) “Text a slap in the face for African countries”, Business Day, 8 Nov 2001, p.11 87 Bello, p.11 88 Keet, p.55 89 Keet, p.33 90 Keet, p.34 91 Keet, p.46 92 Keet, p.38-9 93 Bello, p.3 94 FIAN (2001) “The Right to Adequate Food in the Process of the World Food Summit Follow up”, Policy Paper. FIAN is a network of farmer organisations from around the world, representing family farmers and peasants from countries in both the North and the South. 95 Porto Alegre 2002 Site Update Newsletter, No 13, Oct 30, 2001 96 Africa Trade Network et al. (2000) “‘WTO – Shrink or Sink!’ – The Turn Around Agenda”. 97 Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas Pamalakaya (KMP – Peasant Movement of the Phillipines), “Peasants Demand: ‘End Global Hunger! WTO Out of Agriculture!’”, Press Release August 28, 2001 98 Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, quoted in Agri-Business Examiner No 131, 26 Oct 2001 Yüklə 180,79 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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