More than 100 farmers today held a protest rally in front of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) office in Makati City urging Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas to reveal the government’s position in the coming World Trade Organization (WTO) 5th Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico next month.

The peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) feared that “by keeping the Philippine government’s position in the WTO meet confidential, the DTI would push for the full integration of agriculture in international trade liberalization in compliance with WTO dictates.”

“We cannot trust a staunch “free market” globalization campaigner like Secretary Roxas to defend and negotiate in the interest and welfare of the Filipino peasantry and the people. He should start thinking of stepping down from his post,” says KMP and Anakpawis chair Rafael Mariano.

“The DTI’s attitude of keeping the Filipino people blind in its position in Cancun plays into the undemocratic character of the WTO,” Mariano said.

The government said it could not reveal the positions saying, “It would be detrimental to the country's chances of getting favorable trade deals.” But the peasant leader said, “The DTI should stop acting as if the country is in a strong position to negotiate.” 

The KMP said that, “among the negotiations agenda to be pushed by the United States, Japan and the European Union in the WTO 5th Ministerial are issues revolving around agriculture, services and investments. These issues are the most contentious since these items of the agenda represent the thrust of the WTO to deepen, in the case of agriculture, and to expand, in the case of service sector and investments, the liberalization process of international trade.”

“The WTO regime will now comprehend the three major sectors of national economies the world over,” Mariano said. “These contentious issues warrants a national public debate on the position the country should take in the WTO Cancun round,” he added.

Citing figures from the Peasant Education and Studies Center (PESC), the peasant group noted that since 1995, the contribution of Philippine agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product has decreased at an average of some 2 percent. In the five years immediately before the WTO regime, Philippine agriculture contributed to the GDP to as high as 28 percent. In the period after 1995, the year the WTO went into effect, its contribution sank to the lower end of 20 percent. In the last three years: 21 percent in 2000, 19 percent in 2001 and to as low as 18 percent in 2002. 

“This decline in agriculture productivity caused the unprecedented loss of livelihood opportunities in the rural sector,” Mariano stressed. 

“The Cancun round will only be used to force through new rules and schedules that will further liberalize international trade to the greater disadvantage of Third World economies and worsen the harsh effects of unbridled liberalization of international trade on small producers and farmers,” Mariano stressed.

The KMP is calling for a halt on the importation of highly sensitive agricultural products that already suffered from the policy of liberalization, like rice, corn, coffee, vegetables, and poultry and livestock, and is demanding the government to get out of the WTO. #

KMP - 20 August 2003