[Marxism] US-imposed laws threaten ruin for many Iraq farmers

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.grain.org 

http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6 

Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war against farmers 

by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN 

October 2004 

NEWS RELEASE 

When former Coalition Provisional Authority 
(CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called
"transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 
100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. 


Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed
Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." [1] This order
amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is
revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and
force of a binding law. 

[2] With important implications for farmers and the future of
agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in
the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy. 


WHO GAINS? 

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially
unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free
innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming
communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. 


This has been made illegal under the new law The seeds farmers are now
allowed to plant - "protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by
transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction -
will be the property of the corporations. While historically the Iraqi
constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the
new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over
seeds. 


Inserted into Iraq's previous patent law is a whole new chapter on Plant
Variety Protection 
(PVP) that provides for the "protection of new varieties of plants." PVP
is an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of patent for plant
varieties which gives an exclusive monopoly right on planting material
to a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or developed a new
variety. So the "protection" in PVP has nothing to do with conservation,
but refers to safeguarding of the commercial interests of private
breeders (usually large corporations) claiming to have created the new
plants. 


To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply with the standards of
the UPOV [3] Convention, which requires them be new, distinct, uniform
and stable. Farmers' seeds cannot meet these criteria, making
PVP-protected seeds the exclusive domain of corporations. The rights
granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to
produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected
varieties. These rights extend to harvested material, including whole
plants and parts of plants obtained from the use of a protected variety.
This kind of PVP system is often the first step towards allowing the
full-fledged patenting of life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of
the law does not rule out the patenting of plants or animals. 


The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees
and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the
property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this
variety without compensating the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi
farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds
of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of
the new patent law. [4] This deprives farmers what they and many others
worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds. 


CORPORATE CONTROL 

The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good
quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO [5].
What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi
agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical -
the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe.
Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these
companies to open up operations in Iraq, which the new law has achieved.
Taking over the first step in the food chain is their next move. 


The new patent law also explicitly promotes the commercialisation of
genetically modified 
(GM) seeds in Iraq. Despite serious resistance from farmers and
consumers around the world, these same companies are pushing GM crops on
farmers around the world for their own profit. Contrary to what the
industry is asserting, GM seeds do not reduce the use of pesticides, but
they pose a threat to the environment and to people's health while they
increase farmers dependency on agribusiness. 


In some countries like India, the 'accidental' release of GM crops is
deliberately manipulated [6], since physical segregation of GM and
GM-free crops is not feasible. Once introduced into the agro-ecological
cycle there is no possible recall or cleanup from genetic pollution [7].



As to the WTO argument, Iraq legally has a number of options for
complying with the organisation's rules on intellectual property but the
US simply decided that Iraq should not enjoy or explore them. 


RECONSTRUCTION FAÇADE 

Iraq is one more arena in a global drive for the adoption of seed patent
laws protecting the monopoly rights of multinational corporations at the
expense of local farmers. 


Over the past decade, many countries of the South have been compelled
[8] to adopt seed patent laws through bilateral treaties [9]. The US has
pushed for UPOV-styled plant protection laws beyond the IPR standards of
the WTO in bilateral trade through agreements for example with Sri Lanka
[10] and Cambodia [11]. 


Likewise, post-conflict countries have been especially targeted. For
instance, as part of its reconstruction package the US has recently
signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with Afghanistan [12],
which would also include IPR-related issues. 


Iraq is a special case in that the adoption of the patent law was not
part of negotiations between sovereign countries. Nor did a sovereign
law-making body enact it as reflecting the will of the Iraqi people. In
Iraq, the patent law is just one more component in the comprehensive and
radical transformation of the occupied country's economy along
neo-liberal lines by the occupying powers. This transformation would
entail not just the adoption of favoured laws but also the establishment
of institutions that are most conducive to a free market regime. 


Order 81 is just one of 100 Orders left behind by Bremer and among the
more notable of these laws is the controversial Order 39 which
effectively lays down the over-all legal framework for Iraq's economy by
giving foreign investors rights equal to Iraqis in exploiting Iraq's
domestic market. 
[snip--snipped material includes extensive list of references.]


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