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CIVIC
organizations, in a “special order” issued to the top
government trade negotiators, demanded that the
Philippine negotiating team in the Geneva
mini-ministerial World Trade Organization (WTO) talks
should avoid agreeing in any new deal that may arise
from the weeklong discussions.
The
Special Order 01-2008, purportedly coming from “the
people of the Philippines,” said the disappointing
offers on agriculture, fisheries and industries, as well
as services, as prepared by the WTO leadership, reek of
unbalanced trade positions that would spell disaster and
continued poverty for Filipinos.
The
“order” was delivered by the Stop the New Round
Coalition, Kilusang Magsasaka, Kamao-APL and Jubilee
South to the offices of Trade Secretary Peter Favila,
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and National Economic
and Development Authority Deputy Director General August
Santos.
“Agreeing to an unbalanced and unfair deal just so we
will not be accused of stalling the round will be a
betrayal of the development interests of the Filipinos,”
the order said. It noted that the draft texts allow
developed countries to continue enjoying their
trade-distorting subsidies while developing countries
like the Philippines are denied of their much-needed
production support.
Thus, it
called on President Arroyo, who is the head of the
Philippine negotiators, to continue to press the US, the
European Union and other developed countries to
substantially reduce their subsidies as “being our trade
partners, their heavily subsidized agricultural products
are unfairly competing with our poorly supported farm
sector.”
The
Philippine negotiating team in Geneva, the document
added, should make sure that the provisions on the
Special Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Mechanism
(SSM) are upheld as these are the only relief that the
badly beaten domestic farm sector can rely on as
protection from undue competition from imported products
resulting from the trade liberalization espoused by the
WTO.
Finally,
the order said the government should not just settle on
defending the livelihood of the poor Filipinos in the
negotiations as the state should also sincerely develop
the agriculture, fisheries and industry sectors by
providing the necessary support to allow the
marginalized people in these sectors to stay afloat in
the liberalized global trade regime.
“The
Filipino people are watching over you in the
negotiations in Geneva. As representatives of the
Filipinos, foremost in your mandate is to purposely
correct the inequalities of the Doha Development Round
and genuinely uphold our development interests,” it
said. |
