Press Release from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy For Immediate Release November 12, 2001 Contact: Mark Ritchie - 01612-644-2728 (cell in Qatar) or Sophia Murphy - 01612-203-5633 (cell in Qatar)
WTO Agreement on Agriculture Devastating for US Farmers
Farm Policy at Home Contradicts US Demands at WTO Meeting
Doha - Many developing countries have harshly criticized the World Trade Organization's (WTO) draft Agreement on Agriculture, charging that it will push more farmers off the land. US family farmers have already been hit hard by the current WTO Agriculture agreement, and would likely be harmed further by the current text being discussed.
Despite calling for reduced farm subsidies for other countries, massive amounts of government money from the US still goes to support the agriculture industry. Direct government payments to US agriculture totaled $22.9 billion in 2000. Nearly 40 percent of agriculture's 2000 net cash income was derived from direct government subsidies. A recent analysis of US Department of Agriculture data shows that ten percent of the biggest recipients received two-thirds of the total money dispersed.
The ten year farm bill, currently being discussed in the US, would result in massive increases in subsidies. While there are disagreements between the House and Senate bills, no one questions that it will be the biggest farm bill ever passed in the US.
"It is the height of hypocracy on the part of the US to push for other countries to lower their subsidy payments, when its own government turns around and does the opposite," says IATP President Mark Ritchie. "It is the subsidization of agriculture that has created record low prices, and allowed multinational agribusiness companies to dump crops onto the world market at below-cost-of production prices."
A recent report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.wtowatch.org) documents the dumping of US produced corn, soybeans and wheat onto the world market, driving farmers in other countries out of business.
"Agriculture dumping is the elephant in the green room that nobody wants to talk about. We need immediate enforcement of the dumping rules for agriculture to stop these massive distortions in the world market," says Sophia Murphy, IATP Trade director. "US farmers and farmers worldwide are the victims in this system, while agribusiness benefits from record-low prices. The current draft text does nothing to correct the critical problem of dumping."
Contact Mark Ritchie and Sophia Murphy at the cell phone numbers at the top of this release for more information on this topic and other developments on the negotiations within the WTO Agreement on Agriculture.
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