Assembly of the Poor Statement THAI-EU FTA NEGOTIATION - DON’T RESTRAIN OUR FREEDOM OF GENETICS AND JUSTICE IN MEDICINE ACCESSIBILITY The second round of negotiation on Free Trade Agreement between Thailand and European Union (Thai-EU FTA) which is going on during 16-20 September 2013 in Chaingmai, Thailand, is a state’s economic policy which will affect natural resource bases, wellbeing and duly rights of the poor. Assembly of the Poor sees that the Thai-EU FTA negotiation, if the voices of concern from the poor are ignored, will create enormous negative impacts based on the following reasons. 1. Monopolization of seeds and bioresources Seeds and bioresources are critical not only for farmers, but also for the country’s biodiversity and food sovereignty. Assembly of the Poor negates the EU’s pressure on Thailand to extend the provision on intellectual property to seeds and bioresources and to allow patents on life forms. These demands will open a door for transnational corporates to monopolize seed and biotechnological industries and to grab all natural resources. As the consequence, small scale farmers will be forced to buy seeds at higher price, unable to keep seeds to grow in the next season. They will not be allowed to exchange seeds among themselves. At the end, small scale farmers’ and local communities’ ability to protect their own native seeds and animal genetics will be crippled. 2. Liberalization of investment on utilization of natural resources, especially in agricultural sector From the grief experiences of our peasant brothers and sisters living in countries all over the world where free trade agreements are implemented, Assembly of the Poor learns that free trade will give sumptuous opportunities to transnational corporates and investors to exploit the people’s natural resources freely, especially in agricultural sector. Land, water and other resources will be grabbed away from the poor in order to produce food and agrofuel for export. This is the threat to the country’s food sovereignty and violation of peasant’s rights. Regretfully, there is no provision, not even an intention, in the Thai-EU FTA talk to protect the poor’s natural resources at all. 3 Injustice in accessibility to medicine The Thai-EU FTA which is being negotiated at this moment will finally create monopoly in medicine industry and injustice in accessibility to medicine. The pressure from European Union, such as the extension of medicine patent protection duration, data exclusivity or the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, if successful, will raise the price of medicine, obstruct the patients’ accessibility to medicine and undermine the generic medicines’ industry. It is extremely inhumane that European Union forces Thai government to trade off the lives of countless Thai patients, especially the poor ones, for trade preferences of a handful of capitalists and transnational corporates. We, Assembly of the Poor, absolutely oppose this pressure following the strong resistance of the people of India that finally the European Union removes this provision from the FTA negotiation with India. From the beginning, we, Assembly of the Poor, together with other Thai civil movements, criticize and present our demands to the Thai government for many times. Dr. Olan Chaiyaprawat, the head of the Thai-EU FTA Negotiation Team himself received our demands in person in February 2013. As the second round of Thai-EU FTA negotiation is taking place at this moment, we demand the Thai government to be aware of its role and responsibility as the representative of all Thai people. We call on the government to take into consideration the benefit of people especially the poor and not to act as an agent of transnational corporates or gigantic capitalists to blindly protect their profit. We call on the government to stick to our demands and those of the people sector’s and direct the negotiation accordingly, which are: 1. Do not comply with the pressure or demand from European Union that force Thailand to accept the intellectual property (IP) provision exceeding World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on IP (known as TRIPS-plus provision) 2. Do not allow the investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanism to cover the following domain: public investment, policies or measures to protect public goods, environment protection, public health, basic infrastructure and security. 3. Do not liberate the investment which involves the utilization of natural resources and investment in agricultural sector, including rice growing, horticulture, cash crop plantation, aquaculture, forestation, breeding and propagation of plants and any other investment that will undermine the country’s sovereignty and violate the peasants’ rights. During 18-19 September 2013, the FTA Watch is going to organize a mass campaign to scrutinize the Thai-EU FTA negotiation in Chiangmai. We, Assembly of the Poor, express our solidarity with FTA Watch and will organize an action parallel to the campaign. 17 September 2556 Assembly of the Poor Democracy where people can eat, Politics where the poor matter.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 15:27:16 +0000
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