FREE FARMERS FROM TRADE RULES!

Forum Against FTAs:

FREE FARMERS FROM TRADE RULES!

Statement in Solidarity

of

Kisan Mukti Sansad

21 November 2017 | Delhi

Our farmers need to be freed from restrictive rules of so-called ‘free trade’. These rules are intended to remove barriers between borders for imports and exports, but they operate in the realities of imbalanced relations between countries widening disparities. Free trade rules require liberalising the agriculture sector and minimising state interference. They re-orient our food and farm systems in the wrong direction. They shift focus away from the real needs of our food producers and their farms to international market(s) that are run purely by the logic of profit and power. The architecture of these markets is designed for BIG agribusiness and decided at fora outside the national capitals and far removed from village bodies. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other free trade agreements (FTAs) set the terms of engagement in this market. The processes of their negotiation denationalise our decision-making on agriculture and further exclude already marginalised farming communities. Our farming policies need to be re-rooted to make social, cultural and ecological sense. Free trade rules have no place in such a vision of relocalised production and food sovereignty.

Agricultural Trade

Smallholder farmers are unable to get better prices, as they are no longer determinants of pricing. Free trade rules determine which agricultural commodities will be sold at what price where. Cheap imports of grain, spices, dairy and other agricultural products means our farmers are not able to sell their produce at remunerative prices in their own country. Agricultural subsidies granted through WTO rules allow cheaper products at the cost of domestic producers. Dependence on global trade to sell agricultural produce makes our farmers extremely exposed to the volatilities of the international market.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property (IP) rules prescribed in WTO TRIPS privatise life forms, including seeds. This is a deep disrespect of farmers’ knowledge systems and women seed keepers. The enforcement of monopoly rights through IP in agriculture goes against the fundamental principles of peasant agriculture, which is premised on sharing of seed wisdom and exchanging of planting materials. IP also raises input costs of seeds and other agricultural inputs, driving farmers to seek loans putting them in debt. This only deepens the agrarian crises.

Food Security

The struggle to retain public stockholding for food security is also being challenged by developed countries at the WTO. Such opposition comes in the way of our governments being able to make food accessible and affordable to our most food-vulnerable communities, many of who are smallholder farmers.

Quality Standards

Standards of quality imposed by importing countries create artificial barriers to trade in agricultural products. These are meant to keep out what are regarded as non-standard or ‘low quality’ products. The discussion on standards should be a domestic one, whereby we grow what is good for our region, while protecting our farmers and their agro ecological practices and keeping intact diverse food cultures. When our farmers and their farming can provide real and meaningful solutions as an alternative to the life-threatening agro-industrial model of production, their criteria and standards need to be adopted.

Farmers’ Participation

The holding of the ‘farmers’ liberation parliament’ outside the Parliament of India in New Delhi, is an unfortunate reminder of the fact that farmers’ concerns are neither being adequately discussed by the law-making body nor being addressed by the executive. WTO matters, as well as FTAs/BITs that have any impact on our farmers must not only be debated in the Parliament at the Centre, but also discussed with States.

DEMANDS:

Agriculture should be made a non-negotiable in our trade relations. We reject the trade rules of WTO, such as those in the Agreement on Agriculture and the TRIPS Agreement, as well as FTAs that put trade first, rather than our farmers and our food.

No decisions about trade in food, farm and seed issues should be taken without discussions with farmers groups, state governments, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and sans any debates in the Parliament of India.

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