Overseas:
WTO summit in Cancun collapses

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

In the face of the worsening crisis of the world capitalist system, imperialist countries are increasingly desperate to further the exploitation and oppression of peoples and countries worldwide. At the same time, proletarian and people's struggles against imperialist globalization and its onslaught on their lives and livelihood are intensifying.

The Fifth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Cancun, Mexico from September 10-14 and attended by representatives from 149 member-countries. As in earlier meetings held in Seattle, USA (1999) and Doha, Qatar (2001), the Cancun summit achieved nothing.

One-sided liberalization. During the meeting, the imperialist countries shamelessly pushed for the further reduction of tariffs on agricultural products in "developing countries" even as they strongly protected their own economies. The US and the European Union (EU) were adamantly against any reduction in the huge agricultural subsidies they alloted and used to give their products a trade advantage.

Governments of capitalist countries subsidize more than 10% of agricultural production costs. A glaring example is Japan whose government provides the owners of rice plantations and businesses more than 700% of their production costs. The EU sets aside $100 billion annually for farms producing sugar, flour and milk. Taken altogether, the US and Europe provided up to $320 billion in subsidies to their respective agricultural sectors.

Imperialist agricorporations are the chief beneficiaries of these subsidies. In 2002, over 65% of these subsidies were gobbled up by the 10 largest plantations and agricorporations in the US.

This has resulted in a $40 billion annual decline in the exports of backward countries. In addition, peasants lose more than $24 billion every year as a result of the destruction of productive forces caused by importations from imperialist countries. In the face of all this, the imperialist countries still have the gall to insist on completely eradicating the scant and insignificant subsidies for peasants in backward countries.

If the enormous subsidies given by the capitalist countries to their respective agricultural sectors were to be removed, peasants from backward countries would earn an additional $120 billion, which is three times bigger than the capitalist countries' token annual aid budget.

Liberalization in the Philippines. The US and the EU continue to dictate the liberalization of agriculture despite the glaring truth that backward countries gain nothing from it but the destruction of their economies and forces of production.

In just a year after the Philippines joined the WTO, agricultural trade took an immediate dive and the deficit ballooned to $5.2 billion from the $1.3 billion surplus recorded in 1994. Instead of new jobs being created, over 719,000 were immediately lost. This went on until 2000 when over two million people lost their jobs in the countryside. Just in the last two years, 1.3 million peasants, fisherfolk and other impoverished sectors in the countryside lost their livelihoods as a result of the liberalization of agriculture.

Liberalization is killing local agricultural production with the unrestrained dumping by imperialist countries of their surplus products. Hence, the Philippines ended up importing more even as its agricultural exports continue to decline. In 1995, corn prices dropped by a third as corn imports rose by 520%. Rice prices and production fell as rice importation rose by 540%. From 1995-2000, the importation of vegetables and other agricultural products grew by 300%.

As expected, the Philippines is among the countries that strictly comply with US imperialist dictates. The Arroyo regime's stand to "renegotiate" certain provisions of signed agreements is mainly just for show. In pretending to stand firmly against the reduction of tariffs and for the reduction of subsidies provided by imperialist countries to their agricultural sectors, the Aquino regime went along with the G20�an alliance of 20 countries strongly opposed to US and EU dictates. On the other hand, the regime has also sharply felt a decline in its income resulting from a premature and dramatic reduction in tariff collections after it stupidly volunteered to cut down its tariffs earlier than other countries. This is one of the reasons behind the country's mounting budget deficit and the exacerbation of the country's debt crisis.

Ultimately, the regime continues to rely more on concessions and crumbs that fall from its imperialist master�s table. It continues to implement all of the WTO's dictates despite all the rhetoric it spouted in Cancun. This is demonstrated by its continuing push to amend the constitution to make it even easier for foreign monopoly capital and trade to penetrate and dominate the country.

21 September 2003
English Edition

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