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This paper was written by Sarath Fernando of Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR) from Sri Lanka. The MONLAR is a member of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC).

WTO Turnaround: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Development First
December 16, 2011

As Ministers convene in Geneva for the 8th WTO Ministerial Meeting, it is clear that after many failed Ministerial meetings and nearly ten years of negotiations, the Doha Round of WTO expansion is at a crossroads.
Increasingly, developed countries have pushed aside agreements to negotiate on key developing country issues intended to correct the imbalances within the existing WTO, which formed the basis of the development mandate of Doha. Thus, the last Doha negotiations texts (December 2008) should not be used as the basis of any future negotiations. Even worse, rich-country governments appear to be re-packaging the old liberalization and market access demands of their corporate interests as so-called “21st century” issues, and pursuing plurilateral agreements among “coalitions of the willing” on the agenda of the 1%, with the ultimate goal of pressuring other countries to join later. The WTO process that led to the Chair’s “Elements for Political Guidance” was so unbalanced and exclusive that a group of developing countries has formally dissociated itself from the alleged “consensus.” Finally, the proposed Standstill (“Pledge Against Protectionism”) must be rejected outright as a grave threat to policy space.

For close to a century, peasants in the Philippines have been organizing to defend their lands from being grabbed by foreign agribusiness corporations.

By IBON Foundation
April 27, 2010

The last three decades have seen ever greater attacks on the livelihoods and welfare of Filipino peasants. Neoliberal policies of ‘free market’ globalization have been implemented amid long-standing problems of landlessness and monopolies on rural resources, credit and power – agricultural trade liberalization, state neglect of small rural producers, and promoting the interests of foreign and domestic agri-business.

These have resulted in severe economic displacement, crop and land use conversions, deepening rural poverty, diminishing food self-sufficiency and the agricultural sector failing to generate jobs, raise countryside incomes and act as a foundation for economic development. Elites in corporate agriculture have meanwhile continued to profit at the expense of the sector’s direct producers. The return of sharply rising global food prices this year only further underscores the dangers for the people, economy and the country if the liberalization-induced agricultural decline is not arrested.

The Philippines – including its agricultural sector – has been progressively liberalizing since the 1980s ostensibly to improve the efficiency, productivity and incomes of domestic producers. The first phase of the Tariff Reform Program (TRP) started in the early 1980s, followed by the second phase in 1991 and the third phase in 1995. When the country acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, quantitative restrictions even on sensitive agricultural products (except rice) were replaced by nominal tariffs which were themselves systematically lowered. In 1996 a tariff quota system for sensitive agricultural products was instituted including Minimum Access Volume (MAV) provisions.