Last week, the World Trade Organisation once again failed farmers.
Farmers from Ngarendare B community based organisation observe the creation of furrows in preparation for the planting of onions at a farm in Meru County, Kenya. Credit: Brian Otieno/Transform Trade
In the face of global farmer protests, the World Trade Organisation’s conference last week produced little more than air miles and empty statements.
The 164 member World Trade Organisation (WTO) met for its 13th ministerial conference last week. At the same time, farmer protests have erupted in India and the EU, adding to the 65 countries that have already seen demonstrations over the past year. At first glance, these two things may appear to have little in common but look closer and it's clear that the impact of WTO rules lies at the heart of farmers' grievances.
It’s not straightforward to summarise why farmers from so many different countries are taking to the streets. In India, protests are about plans to scrap government guarantees of a minimum purchase price. In the EU it varies, from competition with lower-priced imports, to frustration with the way subsidies work, and the spiraling costs of energy and fertiliser. Kenya has seen a wave of protests about things like low prices for their products and unfair government policies.
However, the impact of global trade rules is a common thread. For example, the WTO only allows countries to offer minimum purchasing prices for a very limited amount of produce. It has been advocating for ever-increasing market liberalisation since its formation in 1995, exposing farmers everywhere to volatile prices both for their products, and for inputs like fertiliser.
Finally, whilst not all policy decisions can be blamed on the WTO, it severely limits the choices governments are able to make to support their agricultural industries.
These failures have particularly damaging impacts for countries in the Global South. The Doha negotiations, launched in 2001, were an acknowledgement that these countries had been badly served by the WTO’s founding agreements. Perhaps the most [KD1] shocking outcome has been the destruction of a number of industries due to ‘dumping’ of subsidised produce from the Global North. For example, Ghana’s poultry industry collapsed in the face of cheap imports from the EU[1] and dairy industries in Bangladesh and West Africa have struggled to compete with imports of subsidized EU milk powder.[2]
In 2022, WTO members issued a declaration on food security which recognized that “trade disruptions, record prices and excessive volatility for food and agriculture products could undermine food security in all Members.” But a declaration is a far cry from action.
At last week’s conference, the WTO was supposed to take action. But despite protests across the world, it failed to do so.
To anyone who follows the work of the WTO, this comes as no surprise. The WTO has finalised just one agreement since its founding treaties were written, and its dispute settlement function has collapsed because the US refuses to approve judges to the panel. More importantly, the promises of the 2001 Doha round of negotiations made little progress, and were eventually dropped completely in 2015.
We need to undo harmful WTO agreements, and follow the lead of global farmers movements who are fighting for change.
Various agreements at the United Nations already exist that could help build a system based on the idea of food sovereignty. In place of the WTO approach, which considers food a commodity to be traded, food sovereignty sees food as a fundamental right.
It prioritises local agricultural production and the rights of farmers, the ability of countries to protect themselves from under-priced imports, democratic participation in policy decisions about agriculture and in particular, the recognition of the rights of women farmers. Adopting this approach would mean countries accepting that the free and liberalized trade envisaged by the WTO has been totally inappropriate for the food and agriculture system.
As recently as 2019, global farmer movements won a huge victory in the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (known as UNDROP). The declaration requires states to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of anyone who engages in small-scale agricultural production, including indigenous peoples and local communities working on the land, and hired workers, including migrant workers.
Crucially, it recognizes the need for these communities to have agency and a voice in processes that affect them: to be consulted in agricultural policy, to be able to organize into associations or unions and have them recognized and heard.
Those same movements are now setting their sights on the WTO, done with waiting for the WTO to find solutions to the pressing problems faced by farmers and those watching their food bills sky rocket. Instead, they are calling for food and agriculture to be taken out of the WTO all together.
They are in good company: in 2020 the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food noted that “the Agreement on Agriculture of the World Trade Organisation [has] been unable to provide adequate outcomes in terms of trade results and food security” and recommended winding the agreement down and negotiating new international food agreements.
These movements recognise that leaving a vacuum would be in no-one’s interest because it would increase the disparity between powerful corporations who dominate agri-food trade and small farmers. For this reason, they are already starting to work on the alternative. Transform Trade will be joining La Via Campesina and others in working for global reform.
For small farmers and people struggling with the cost of living crisis, bringing together the numerous ministers, civil servants, NGOs and journalists from 164 countries in Abu Dhabi has produced little more than air miles and empty statements.
It’s time the WTO got out of the way and let those growing the food we all need shape the future of the agriculture system.
[1] t: https://www. researchgate.net/publication/329280184_Import_Tariff_Adjustment_a_case_for_poultry_farmers_in_Ghana
[2] https://cor.europa.eu/en/engage/studies/Documents/CAP-developing-countries.pdf