EAST ASIA: Region’s Poor Shortchanged by Trade Rules – Activists

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 25 2002 (IPS) - East Asia’s farmers, fishermen and women workers are being shortchanged by trade policies that offer few real opportunities to get out of poverty, activists with the international development agency Oxfam here say.

In fact, even in a region that has gained much from trade, poverty has been increasing for those in livelihoods most vulnerable to unfair trade policies in the region, they point out.

These are, for instance, the rice farmers in Thailand, the coffee growers in Vietnam and the fishermen in the Philippines. Likewise, the women in Cambodia’s garment industry find themselves at the receiving end of abusive labour practices as countries and companies compete for cheaper costs, they add.

In Thailand, some 60 percent of the farming population, or about 28 million, are rice farmers. In other East Asian countries the numbers are equally high, since Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines account for the bulk of the world’s rice production.

The world trading system must be reformed if the East Asia’s poor are going to benefit from it, Ashvin Dayal, programme manager at Oxfam’s South-east Asia office, said at a discussion here Thursday. “Trade could be part of the solution in fighting poverty, but currently it is part of the problem.”

This is also the focus of a global campaign that Oxfam and other non-governmental organisations are undertaking to change the rules governing global trade, a campaign that Dayal said would involve applying pressure on institutions and strengthening the voice and political clout of affected people.

“We are developing plans to educate the affected communities about the way global trade is run and what needs to be done to change it,” adds Francis Perez, Oxfam’s East Asia trade policy advisor.

For instance, “in Zambales (a province in the northern Philippine island of Luzon), we are working with fishing communities, discussing aquaculture, international trade”, he says.

“Most important is for the women to be educated about the issues and encouraged to organise and voice their demands for change collectively,” Junya Yimprasert, founder of the Bangkok-based Thai Labour Campaign, says of Oxfam’s three- year campaign, ‘Make Trade Fair’.

“We should not lose focus on this bottom-up approach for a successful campaign. The workers should gain the required power to pressure those at the top for change,” Junya said.

Oxfam’s campaign, announced on Apr. 11 at the launch of its report ‘Rigged Rules and Double Standards’, will be conducted in 144 countries. In September, it will take up agriculture issues and by February next year it will start addressing labour standards.

The campaign pushes for change in eight areas, ranging from improving market access for products from poor countries to ending the cycle of agricultural subsidies by rich countries.

Also in the picture is a call for a new international commodities institution to raise the prices to levels “consistent with a reasonable standard of living for producers, and changing corporate practices so that companies pay fair prices”.

Oxfam is lobbying for new intellectual property rules that are sensitive to the technological, health and agricultural needs of poor countries, and enhanced employment standards.

In its report, Oxfam argues that world trade rules are “robbing the poor world of 100 billion dollars a year”, which they would otherwise be able to make in a level playing field.

If East Asian countries were able to increase their share of exports by one percent, it would “lift nine million people out of absolute poverty (those living on an income of one U.S. dollar a day),” the report states.

Oxfam estimates that some 900 million East Asians, almost 48 percent of the region’s population, live on less than two U.S. dollars a day.

Activists highlighted cases where they say farmers and female workers remain trapped in poverty, even if exports appear to be robust.

In Thailand, which enjoys rich rice harvests and is among the world’s biggest rice exporters , some 25 to 30 percent of its 60 million people are severely undernourished, the Oxfam report says.

“Analysis of Thailand’s rice supply chain reveals that value increases serves to enrich only the middlemen, millers, brokers, retailers and exporters. The price of rice doubles the moment after it leaves a farmer’s hands,” it adds.

In Indonesia, subsidised agricultural products from the developed economies has undermined a country that in 1984 was the winner of a U.N. agency’s award for self-sufficiency, according to Oxfam.

“Across East Asia dumping has harmed agricultural economies,” states the Oxfam report. “The U.S. and other countries have dumped subsidised cereals under the guise of ‘food aid’ in Indonesia, destroying markets and causing hardship to thousands of poor rice farmers.”

Competition also fuels a race for lower standards, resulting in female workers, who make up majority of workers in factories and export zones, getting a raw deal under this trade environment.

In addition to women being forced to work in sweatshop conditions, as in Cambodia, they are also denied the right to join unions, the Oxfam report points out. “Overall, women in export manufacturing receive salaries equivalent to only 70 percent of men’s in similar industries,” it adds.

But as participants at Thursday’s discussion noted, East Asia also has lessons to offer about the ability of increased trade to address poverty. “In the mid-1970s, six out of every ten people in the region lived in extreme poverty. Today, fewer than two in ten are in this position,” states the Oxfam report.

But according to Jiraporn Limpananont, of the Drug Study Group, a Bangkok-based independent think-tank, such growth has been led by exports, which has “made us dependent on the rich countries, giving them the power to influence our trade policies”.

“This is wrong,” she asserts. “Trade rules should be fair for developing countries. The current one model fits all does not work.”