Hong Kong round set for protests too

WSF-2004

The forthcoming ministerial meet of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to be held in Hong Kong is once again likely to witness anti-globalisation protests like its predecessors in Seattle, Doha and Cancun.

Speaking on the sidelines of the seminar on land, water and food sovereignty at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, the leading anti- globalisation activist on farm and green issues Jose Bove said, "There hasn't been any effective change in the views of the G6 members in agriculture, between the Cancun collapse and now."

The unionist from the Confederation Paysanne (Peasants' Confederation) further added that most farmers in the developing world are not ready to comply with the demands of the WTO.

Only about 30 million work with the aid of tractors, while about 250 million till with animals, and over a billion don't have over 1.5 hectares of land.

The negotiations in the WTO, in the bid to institutionalise multi-functionality into agriculture along with other sectors, is pressing for countries to increase industrial agriculture and decrease their share of local food production. This would enable them to increase their share in the international markets.

Only around 10 per cent of the world's agricultural products are exported. The other 90 per cent accounts for the crops that should be used to feed the population.

Asked about the high food subsidies enjoyed by France and other European countries, Bove said that most of them now come under the green box incentives levied on export-based products, which are not considered trade distorting.

The main benefactors are the transnational companies. This further widens the gap between the developed and developing world.

Citing the example of China's accession into the WTO in his speech, Bove said the country was forced to reduce food subsidies putting over 100 million farmers out of work. In the next 3 to 4 years the number is likely to go up to 300 million.

A sheep farmer by profession, and a producer of the famous Roquefort cheese, he has served jail sentences for over six months last year, for destroying fields of genetically modified (GM) rice and Novartis' GM Maize in 1999 and 1998, respectively. He is most famous for leading the vandalism of the McDonald's outlet in 1998 .