frican farmers tell the G8 leaders in Germany; we don’t want aid without justice. It is useless to offer help if, at the same time, inequitable trade measures are adopted that annihilate food sovereignty. It seems like help, but actually, it is organized hypocrisy” said father Maurice Oudet of the Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers) on behalf of African farmers from Burkina Faso, from where he spoke to MISNA by phone of the worries over the new trade rules that would be unveiled after the signing if the Economic Partnership Accords (EPA) between the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries (ACP) and the EU.
“The EPA are even more dangerous and limiting than the rules imposed by the WTO, because the principle is to pit the strong economy of advanced countries against the weakness of emerging economies: it is simply criminal” said father Oudet who heads an organism established in 1997 that supports information and formation in the rural world. Having arrived in Burkina Faso (then known as Upper Volta) in 1965, father Oudet knows the agricultural reality of the region and the mechanism unleashed by the world policies of free trade.
“Just as farmers in rich countries, African farmers are also demanding protectionist measures for imports. The problem is that African governments do not have the means to subsidize their producers and sometimes the very opposite happens: governments end up taxing exports. In the USA, the government gives USD 4 billion to 25,000 cotton producers: here, millions of families who live off the land have no subsidies. As for trade tariffs on imports, in Africa they are 10% in Europe 150%: how could African products ever be competitive on that market?”.
Moreover, said father Oudet to MISNA, the drop of the US dollar against the Euro (the CFA Franc is tied to the Euro) has caused a further drop in the prices of products such as cotton, essential to the economies of Mali and Burkina Faso. Papers in the latter country said, a few days ago, that a group of farmers in the Bakata area decided to stop production of cotton: “I ask myself how did they manage to resist for so long, they will be force to take on debt”.
We don’t want aid without justice. It is useless to offer help if, at the same time, inequitable trade measures are adopted that annihilate food sovereignty. It seems like help, but actually, it is organized hypocrisy
Farmers’ groups are asking African governments to postpone the signing of the EPA by at least three months. “Governments are well aware that liberalizations involve risks, but they pretend they do not be aware. They allow themselves to be corrupted…because they are facing blackmail, closed in a virtuous circle. While ACP countries are refusing to sign the Accords, Europe is threatening to start cutting back funds destined for development, without which, many countries will not be able to sustain public spending, from salaries of officials to those of the military...and we all know that unpaid military can be a powder keg.
At the end of a meeting in Dar as-Salam, Tanzania, the leaders and representatives of seven Councils of the Churches of Southern Africa and of the Catholic Church have issued the following statement: “After having studied and analyzed the current negotiations on the EPA, we have reached the conclusion that they do not conform to our principles.
On the contrary, they are a threat to the well-being of our peoples and for our economic development”. “the Churches of the South have made themselves heard – said father Oudet – but it would also please us to hear what the European Church has to say. What do the European Episcopal Conferences think, and the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace? We await their message”.
(From MISNA)