Oxfam savages EC farm export reforms
Andrew Osborn in Brussels
Tuesday December 17, 2002
The Guardian
Long-awaited proposals to abolish most of the EU's notorious farm export
subsidy regime drew a withering response from aid agencies yesterday.
Accusing the European commission of betraying the interests of farmers
in the developing world, the agencies said the proposals were "belated,
half-baked and completely irrelevant", doing nothing to stop EU farmers
from dumping millions of tonnes of subsidised farm products on poor
countries every year.
The proposals, presented by the EC yesterday as the EU's contribution to
the latest round of global trade talks, offer to reduce import tariffs
by 36%, cut export subsidies by 45% and lower trade distorting domestic
farm support by 55%.
According to aid agencies, the proposals are not half as generous as
they seem and the fact that they are contingent upon the US following
the EU's example mean they are worth less than nothing.
"It's either an act of malice or a pre-Christmas leg pull," Kevin
Watkins, head of research at Oxfam, said. "If you read between the lines
it does almost nothing. The reduction in export subsidies will only take
effect by 2013, which means that the EU will still be paying out
billions of dollars in subsidies a year.
"It talks of cutting trade-distorting subsidies but doesn't include
direct payments to farmers at all."
Crucially, some of the EU's biggest farm exports such as sugar, dairy
products and beef were excluded altogether.
A fifth of the world's population lives on a dollar a day and
three-quarters of those people are small farmers.
Many of those farmers are forced to compete against floods of EU farm
imports which have been heavily subsidised by European taxpayers and,
according to Oxfam, they were the biggest losers yesterday.
"The commission has signalled that it is genetically incapable of
producing a proposal that takes account of the interests of developing
countries," Mr Watkins said. "It is always going to put the interests of
its own agri-business first and that's a tragedy.
"This is a dumpers' charter. It will allow the EU to continue to
subsidise big farmers. The EU is incapable of exercising global
leadership in this area."
Anticipating the criticism, Franz Fischler, EU farm commissioner, said
he had done the best he could. "These are substantial changes. Let us
not underestimate them."
He noted that EU farm export subsidies had dwindled over the past 10
years from 30% to 8% of the bloc's budget.
Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner, mounted a vigorous defence:
"This is a win-win proposal. It is fair to others, particularly
developing countries, as it takes into account their development needs."
Oxfam said that the commission could have been far more generous. It
could and should have tackled all forms of export subsidies and done so
immediately, it claimed.
"[The EC proposal] would leave untouched the great majority of subsidies
that ruin the lives of poor people in developing countries," said Justin
Forsyth, Oxfam's policy director.