PHA-Exch> Boycott Mini-Ministerial - Wind up WTO says Indian Farmers Organization

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: PHM Global Secretariat <secretariat at phmovement.org>
 *From:* IndianSocietyFor SustainableAgriculture<indiansocietyag at yahoo.co.in>



*                                           PRESS RELEASE*

Boycott Mini-Ministerial. It is time to wind up WTO says Bharatiya Krishak
Samaj

*New Delhi, July 19 :* The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is practically
hopeless and helpless after successive failures of a series of attempts to
revive the multilateral trade negotiations.  As not much progress in
multilateral trade negotiations was made on basis of the drafts issued in
May this year, the WTO again on July 10 issued two revised drafts – one on
agriculture by Crawford Falconer and other on NAMA by Don Stephenson. There
is practically not much difference in spirit of the drafts issued in July
and those released in May.
The revised WTO text on agriculture has completely ignored the food security
and livelihood concerns of the farmers in the developing countries. It has
proposed a weak defence against the possible influx of cheap and subsidized
imports by suggesting a complicated system for implementation of Special
Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) by the developing countries. In contrast the
Special Safeguard (SSG) implemented by the developed countries is simple and
effective.

The revised draft, though has the provision for self-designation of Special
Products by developing countries, the provision suggested is not enough to
protect food security and livelihood concerns.

"All crops grown by farmers in our country are linked to livelihood concerns
and therefore we should have the right to designate all crops grown by
farmers as Special Products. If the WTO is not willing to give us this right
along with an effective SSM then it should allow countries to impose
Quantitative Restrictions (QR) to check any possible surge  in imports,"
said the President of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, Dr Krishan Bir Chaudhary

Unfortunately the revised draft has not proposed much in the direction of
calling for a drastic cut in heavy subsidies in the developed countries and
sharp reduction in their high tariff barriers. It allowed subsidization and
cross-subsidisation through all avenues – AMS box, Blue Box, Green Box.

While allowing developed countries to protect their agriculture the draft
has suggested developing countries to open their doors for imports

Without resolving the issue of livelihood protection and food security of
the developing countries in general, the revised farm draft has extended
some concessions to least developing countries (LDCs), small vulnerable
economies and 'other developing countries'—this may possible divide the
unity amongst the developing countries, if not tackled effectively.

The revised NAMA draft released by Don Stephenson has sought to take away
the flexibilities to industries in the developing countries with the
introduction of 'anti-concentration' clause. While the July 2004 Framework
agreed that the flexibility cannot be used by developing members to exclude
entire HS Chapters, the latest draft suggested restrictions beyond this
mandate. Such unduly restrictive clause disregards the realities and
sensitivities of the industries in the developing countries. Flexibilities
are more needed for the protection of small and medium-sized industries.

The revised NAMA draft still continues to link tariff reduction coefficients
with flexibilities. The flexibilities have to be treated on stand-alone
basis and there should be no trade-off between flexibilities and tariff
reduction coefficients. The latest NAMA draft has also attempted to create a
division in the unity of the developing countries by proposing additional
flexibilities to some.

The proposal for negotiations in remanufactured goods finds place in the
revised draft indicating convergence on this issue, which is far from
reality. In the earlier draft, the issue was under the square brackets
reflecting lack of consensus on the subject.

The controversial coefficient ranges for developed and developing countries
for cutting tariffs through a "Swiss formula" still remains in the May text
as also the percentages of tariff lines that can have flexibilities from the
full tariff cuts, according to a "sliding scale".

The WTO has failed to fulfill the objectives of the Doha Development
Round. This
is primarily due to the adamant attitude of the developed world to continue
their protectionist regime in agriculture through high subsidies and tariff
and ask for market access in the Third World.

In this context, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj firmly believes that it is high
time to wind up the WTO, instead of creating a drama of convening a
mini-ministerial on July 21.  It could had been better for the Indian
Commerce Minister, Kamal Nath to say that India would boycott the
mini-ministerial rather saying that he would walk out if the WTO fails to
protect the interests of small and marginal farmers and infant industries.
There is no doubt that Kamal Nath has made his statement about walkout due
to the compulsions of political situation in the country and the upcoming
polls, rather than his desire to protect the country's farmers.

*Dr KRISHAN BIR CHAUDHARY*
*President*
*BHARATIYA KRISHAK SAMAJ (Indian Farmers' Organisation*
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