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The protectionist policy of developed countries is
fueling the growing food crisis, Sen. Edgardo Angara charged on
Wednesday.
In a speech on the global food
crisis before Philippines Inc. at the Tower Club in Makati City,
Angara said free trade has neither been free nor fair as it opened
up markets of developing countries to goods from rich countries
without full reciprocation.
“While developed countries
forced us to open our markets to their industrial goods, they kept
their markets closed to our agricultural products with various
mechanisms such as tariff and non-tariff barriers,” he added.
In Yokohama, African leaders also
on Wednesday lashed out at the rich countries for failing to tackle
trade inequalities even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid.
The leaders, in Japan for a major
development conference, urged these industrialized nations to make
it easier for them to export food, coffee and other products at fair
prices. Forty heads of states from Africa are participating in the
three-day conference to discuss economic growth, stability and
climate change.
“Pursuit of unfair trade
practices by the big powers as well as difficult access for African
products to markets of developed countries continue to penalize our
states and significantly destroy their performance in the creation
of riches,” said Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.
Dark side of subsidies
Angara, the chairman of the
Senate Committee on Agriculture and a former Agriculture secretary,
also charged that huge domestic support and export subsidies
provided by developed countries to their farmers render developing
countries’ farm products uncompetitive. He said these subsidies
are in violation of World Trade Organization principles, and they
render poor countries without protection from surges of cheap
imports of agricultural products.
He noted that the US Congress
just approved on May 22 a $307-billion farm bill that will reward
the “rich farmers” in the United States. The European Union is
also giving 40 billion euro ($63.1 billion) in subsidies to European
farmers or roughly $173 million a day.
“Our wealthy neighbors, Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan, all protect their native rice farmers,”
Angara said.
He added that the elimination of
subsidies by rich countries would help correct trade imbalances that
had plagued agriculture.
“These subsidies have had a
very serious impact on farmers, particularly poor farmers in the
Asia-Pacific region,” Angara said.
Technical trade barriers
Besides the elimination of
subsidies, he also urged the government to ensure that legitimate
measures are not used as technical barriers to trade. Angara cited
the current trade between the Philippines and Australia as “a
classic example of such conflict.”
“For decades, Australia has
effectively kept Philippine export products, particularly mango,
banana and pineapples at bay by using unreasonably stringent
sanitary and phytosanitary measures,” he said.
Angara noted that Australia had
allowed only “decrowned” pineapples into its market.
“Pineapples rot after one day
without their crowns and are thus less saleable. Under current
conditions, it’s a losing commercial proposition for the
Philippines,” he said.
Angara believes that the trade
imbalance, which had worsened the food crisis, could also be eased
if the rich countries reduced their tariffs substantially.
“Developed countries should
accept once and for all that developing countries should not be
asked to open their markets in a way that threatens their food
security and the livelihood of their 1.3 billion farmers,” he
said.
Aid for Africa
During the conference in
Yokohama, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged to double aid
to Africa by 2012 and to help the continent boost rice production
two-fold to ease food shortages.
In recent weeks and months,
soaring prices for essential foodstuffs such as rice, wheat and corn
in some of the world’s poorest nations had sparked demonstrations
across Africa.
But some African leaders said
their countries were more concerned about unfair trade deals than a
lack of things to eat.
“There is a big problem of food
in the world now and a problem of energy. In Uganda, there is a
problem of a different kind. We have too much food and no market to
export it to,” said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
“Why? Because of bad policies
in Europe, America and even in Japan,” he added.
Museveni said his country was
facing “a real struggle” to get a fair deal for its natural
resources, including agricultural and mineral products.
For example, a kilo of
unprocessed Ugandan coffee would be sold for $1 at home but for $14
in Britain after it has been refined, he added.
“I see some people here who are
called donors,” Museveni told the conference audience. “Now, I
really have a problem with that definition. Because I don’t know
who’s helping who,” he added.
Fair-trade campaigners say that
while poor countries have been forced to open up their markets, rich
nations have kept unfair practices such as farm subsidies, while
multinational companies fail to give farmers a fair deal.
Gabon’s president, Omar Bongo
Ondimba, urged Japan to boost direct investment in Africa and open
up Japanese markets to African products.
“Japan can weave with Africa a
strategic partnership which is mutually beneficial,” he said.
The gathering in Yokohama is seen
as an effort by Japan to expand its influence in Africa, where China
and India are also seeking closer ties and supplies of natural
resources to fuel their rapid economic growth.
Japan also announced a
$2.5-billion initiative to help its companies do business in Africa,
paving the way for private-sector investment, which some African
leaders said was sorely lacking.
Tanzanian President Jakaya
Kikwete noted that only about 2 percent of Japanese imports were
from Africa.
“Mr. Prime Minister [Fukuda],
this must change. What remains to be seen is increased trade and
investment, and more development of the Japanese private sector on
the African continent,” he said.
--Efren L. Danao With AFP
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