Two militant groups today pressed for the abrogation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (withdrawal of Senate’s concurrence) saying that the agreement fully liberalized and put the country’s agriculture sector further “at the losing end.”

Rafael Mariano, chair of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the political group Anakpawis, said “since the country’s membership to the World Trade Organization, more than US$5.2 billion of agricultural trade deficit was incurred.” 

“This means that for every $1 we earned from exports at least $6 were spent for imports,” Mariano said.

He stressed that “as of the country’s all-out adherence to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-WTO in 1994, importations increased: rice - 540 percent, corn - 320 percent, poultry – 580 percent, beef - 230 percent, pork -120% and fish by 45 percent.” 

The GATT’s Uruguay Round created the World Trade Organization and took effect on January 1, 1995.

“It is high-time for the Philippine government to abrogate GATT because it is impossible to thwart the “killing impacts” of trade liberalization within the framework of the WTO,” Mariano added.

The WTO is set to hold its 5th Ministerial Meeting to be held in Cancun, Mexico on September 10-14.

Recently, local exporters led by the Philippine Exporters Confederation also registered opposition to further liberalization of trade.

The KMP and Anakpawis cited government figures that 1.3 million farmers lost jobs from July 1999 to July 2000 mainly due to the policy of agriculture liberalization. “This figures excludes the 300,000 peasant-families who lost their livelihood brought by importation of agricultural products from 1994-1997.”

KMP and Anakpawis are set to hold protest actions as counterpoint activity to the WTO’s 5th Ministerial Meeting and would banner the theme “Land! Food! Jobs! Not Imperialist Plunder! Get Out of WTO!”. # # #
 

KMP - 14 August 2003