[asia-apec 703] The RAG, Issue No. 3 (part 3 of 3)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

*************THE RAG************* 
(Resistance Against Globalisation) 
The Monthly Newsletter of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly 
Issue No.3, September 1998 


U.S. PUSHES SECTORAL LIBERALISATION.  WILL MALAYSIA RESIST?

This month, the APEC host country, Malaysia, announced a set of sweeping 
currency controls on the ringgit.  The move flies in the face of APEC 
objectives, which seek full trade and investment liberalisation in all member 
countries by the year 2020.  But despite the setback, American negotiators will 
not back down from applying more pressure on APEC countries to liberalize.

According to one US official, "APEC and the countries of the region have to show 
they're on a steady course, that they're not backtracking on their commitments 
to liberalisation."

This leaves Malaysia in a curious position.  This year it is footing the massive 
APEC bill that comes from hosting the leaders' meeting.  Last year the event 
cost the federal government of Canada nearly CDN$60 million.  Why would Malaysia 
want to host this meeting, when its current policies directly contradict APEC's 
mandate?  

Malaysia is not the only APEC country resisting the push towards liberalisation.  
Japan continues to keep APEC from achieving early voluntary sectoral 
liberalisation in the nine sectors agreed to by APEC Leaders last November.  
Japan is particularly reluctant to liberalise the fish and forestry sectors, 
which are politically sensitive in Japan.  However, according to the APEC 
coordinator for the fisheries sector, Japanese opposition will slow down but not 
stop the opening of the sector.  "The fisheries sector is naturally a sensitive 
one . . . because governments worry about their small-scale fishermen and 
fishfarmers," he said.  Unfortunately, for farmers and fishermen, APEC doesn't.

THE APEC FOOD SYSTEM: GUARANTEED TO MAKE YOU ILL

An "Apec Food System" has been proposed by the APEC Business Advisory Council.  
ABAC recommends that the system be a joint private-public "action plan" for the 
region.  According to New Zealand's Minister for International Trade, "the idea 
is to design what an Efficient Food System- free trade in food- would look 
like."   Clearly, the assumption is already being made that "efficiency" equals 
"free trade".

The word "efficient" rings many alarm bells.   Policies that support agriculture 
industrialisation and trade liberalisation are often implemented in the name of 
"efficiency" even though they force small-farmers from their lands, encourage 
the use of dangerous chemical inputs, and destroy local food systems by 
favouring monocrop farming for export.  

ABAC states that the Food System will promote the upgrading of rural 
infrastructure and the diffusion of new agricultural technologies.  In other 
words, it will promote agricultural industrialisation and the use of such 
controversial and expensive technologies as genetic engineering and pesticides.  
These technologies are almost completely controlled by a handful of American and 
European companies.  

The ABAC vision is essentially  the current US agriculture system.  And why 
would any country want to imitate this system?  It is highly subsidized (the 
average subsidy to an American farmer is seven times that of the annual income 
of a Malaysian farmer); unsustainable (in the 1980s the US lost 400,000 hectares 
of land to soil erosion); unhealthy (despite numerous potential side effects, 
animals are filled with hormones, crops are genetically engineered and 
pesticides use is out of control and increasing); and unfair (while farmers get 
4 cents of every consumer dollar spent on food, one company, Phillip Morris, 
gets 10 cents).

ABAC claims that the APEC food system will promote trade in food products.  But 
who benefits from increased trade? The North American Free Trade Agreement 
(NAFTA) promised to slightly lower the price of corn in Mexico (which it hasn't) 
by bringing in cheap subsidized American corn.  But these imports threaten the 
livelihoods of 2.4 million Mexican farming families.  Within the current global 
food system, increased trade only means increased corporate profit.  It's easy 
to see why: fewer than five companies control 90 per cent of the export market 
for each of wheat, corn, coffee, tea, pineapple, cotton, tobacco, jute, and 
forest products.

USCC PREDICTS DOWNFALL OF INDUSTRY DUE TO ENVIRO EXTREMEISTS

(Wed, 2 Sep 1998 Australian Broadcast Corporation) Australia's Plastics and 
Chemicals Industries Association has been warned growth in the use of the 
Internet poses a threat to industry profits in a climate of growing 
environmental activism.

United States Chamber of Commerce vice-president William Kovacs was commenting 
at the association's convention in Port Douglas.  Mr Kovacs told delegates the 
biggest threat to plastics and chemicals, and perhaps all industry, is the 
ability for anyone to disseminate incorrect information cheaply to the entire 
world.  He says the use of the Internet by extreme environmentalists and greater 
amounts of public disclosure law will create fear and allow the sabotage of 
industries.  Mr Kovacs warns that when the tide changes against industry, 
industrialised nations will act like countries dominated by religious 
fundamentalists.

CONFRONTING GLOBALISATION: REASSERTING PEOPLES' RIGHTS
This year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting will be 
held in November in Malaysia.  Since the first Leaders' Meeting in 1993, 
representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), people's 
organisations, and social movements have met in parallel gatherings to highlight 
concerns about the "free trade, free market" model of trade and investment 
liberalisation that APEC promotes.  Today, a strong global movement continuously 
monitors, educates and mobilises people to fight the neoliberal economic 
programmes causing untold hardship to workers, women and peoples the world over.  
More than 500 participants from the Asia-Pacific region are expected to attend 
the Peoples' Assembly in Kuala Lumpur.  This year's assembly is of utmost 
importance given the current financial crisis in Asia, the 50th anniversary of 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and upcoming negotiations at the WTO.

Issues and sector forums will feed into a two-day plenary session on November 
13-14 in Kuala Lumpur.  Forums include: Human Rights, Democracy and 
Militarisation, Food Security and Agriculture, Consumers, Community Livelihood, 
Sustainability, Urban Poor, Labour, Migrant Labour, Women, Youth and Students, 
Strategies of Peasant Movements, Globalisation and Children, Environment and 
Forestry, Privatisation and Financial Deregulation, Media, and Indigenous 
Peoples.  The plenary will build a common analysis and a plan of action with the 
overall objective to strengthen the peoples' movement against globalisation.  To 
register for APPA please contact the secretariat.


Challenging the Global Economy
A Forum on Malaysia, the Asian Crisis, and Globalisation 
Sunday, October 4, 1998
7:00 pm
Disted College, 340 Jalan Macalister,
Penang, Malaysia
Speakers:

Meenakshi Raman, Consumers' Association of Penang, Malaysia
        "The Winners and Losers of Globalisation"
Marzuki Darusman, Human Rights Commission of Indonesia, Indonesia
        "Human Rights and Economic Development: The case of Indonesia"
Sarojeni V. Rengam, Pesticide Action Network- Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia
        "You can't eat Rubber: Globalisation and Food Security"
Charles Santiago, Economist, Stamford College, Malaysia
        "The Malaysian Response: What the recent currency policies really mean?"
Irene Fernandez, Tenaganita, Malaysia
        "Struggling Sisters: Women and the Asian Crisis"
Robert David, Alternatives, Canada
        "Swimming Upstream: What are the alternatives?"

To request an invitation contact the APPA Secretariat (tel: 03-2836245 email: 
appasec at tm.net.my)or PAN-AP (tel: 04-6570271 email:panap at panap.po.my)


NEXT ISSUE: 
 
Report from the Malaysian Consultation on Food Security
Info on APPA 
What the recent economic policies are all about

***********************************************************************
  The Rag is the monthly newsletter of the Asia Pacific Peoples'
Assembly (APPA).   All organizations and individuals from within and
outside of Malaysia that are  concerned about globalisation are
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organisation are interested in participating in or hosting  or
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The Secretariat 
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Email: appasec at tm.net.my 
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