kickAAS: Countdown to Cancun

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From Poverty to Power
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Cotton subsidies and Africa
Map of US subsidies
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« OK . . . now where do we go from here? | Main | A stone thrown into the water . . . »

August 20, 2003

Countdown to Cancun

DAY 3: Lots of suggestions to kick-start our campaign to help the Third World (and ourselves) by abolishing all agricultural subsidies These ideas are gleaned from the comments and emails you have sent - for which many thanks - placed in rough order of importance:

1 Form a united front with all sympathetic organisations, from the right, left or centre that share our single aim to kickAAS (kick all agricultural subsidies). The subtext is we must not be distracted by bolting on other causes however worthy they are. We will gain maximum support by being single minded. Any organisation wishing to lend support please let us know.
2 Work out ways to influence (by email, petitions, lobbying, demos etc) the politicians actually making the decisions – mainly in the US and Europe. Names and email addresses please.
3 Gather public support from dignitaries and celebs.
4 Viral emails. Thanks to Paul Ross who has added this signature to his email and urges others to do the same:

I am a Kick-AAS (Kick All Agricultural Subsidies) supporter http://kickaas.typepad.com/
Please also consider becoming one!

5 Make sure the web site is regularly updated with news, articles and startling statistics.

Keep the ideas flowing. Time is short. The next meeting of the World Trade Organisation is in Cancun, Mexico starting on September 10. For a brief resume of what we are all about read “Abolish all agricultural subsidies” – two posts below this one.

August 20, 2003 | Permalink

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Posted by: Maz | August 27, 2003 at 07:32 AM

Abolishing all agricultural subsidies

Now that the development round of trade negotiations from September 10-14 at Cancum (Mexico) is drawing close, the developing countries seem to be at a loss to understand how to proceed to ensure their interests, primarily, on the agricultural front. In view of better comprehension displayed of inequities of the Uruguay round, at the Doha meeting two years ago, most of the developing countries continue to harbour the fear of repetition of their plight this time too. However, thanks to the insight of recognised scholars and experts, this has been attributed to “secret negotiations, arm twisting and the display of brute economic power by the US and Europe aimed at ensuring that the interests of the rich are protected.” They have noted that while some progress has been evident toward making the ongoing talks more open and transparent, beyond which the move continues to be strongly resisted, notably from the United States and the European Union.
This, of course, has special reference to agriculture sector where most people in the developing world live in. To them, as such, it is not a question of providing access, but of eliminating the subsidies. It is these that encourage production in rich countries, and to the detriment of the farmers in the developing countries. From comparison worked out it has been concluded that subsidies in the advanced countries exceed, for instance, the total income of sub-Saharan Africa. For one thing, the average European subsidy per cow matches the $2 per day poverty level on which billions of people barely subsist. Again, the $4bn cotton subsidies to 25,000 better off US farmers has been identified as the cause of misery, say, to as many as 10 million African farmers, thereby, more than offsetting the US’s aid to some of the affected countries. It is, however, just another matter that while both Europe and America accuse each other of unfair agricultural policies, they remain equally opposed to offer substantial concessions. To the inequities in agriculture have lately been added the developing countries’ woes about bio-piracy - the patenting of traditional foods and drugs by the western giants in trade and industry. From an overall view of the plight of the developing countries it will be noted that what hurts them most is the system of subsidies, the elimination of which is being vigorously forced upon them by the IMF while the farmers in the West continue to flourish from it.
According to one study, America’s 25,000 cotton farmers received more than $3 billion in subsidies last year, equivalent to 100 per cent of the market value of cotton output, which works out to $230 an acre. As against this, West Africa, which happens to be one of the most efficient cotton producers, with an estimated 11 million people dependent on it, can’t compete with subsidised products from the US, which has 40 per cent of world exports. It should stand to reason that if subsidies were removed, West Africa, according to IMF figures, could produce profitably at two thirds of US production costs. Providentially, responding to flaws in the Doha round of talks, Oxfam and others see it hampering the WTO aim to eliminate export subsidies. Referring to US-EU joint commitment to cap the amount of direct payments to farmers to 5 per cent of output, it has been found ignoring that there has been a parallel explosion of payments linked to other factors. Viewed from this angle, the $180bn increase in spending on export credits and food aid by Bush administration, which is claimed as fair trade, will appear to be nothing short of disguised dumping. Evidently, the only way to deal with subsidies is to make it simple and effective. “Abolish all agricultural subsidies” is a campaign recently launched by Oxfam to ensure that every proposed reform doesn’t generate new escape routes that negate its primary purpose. Thankfully, the Guardian has launched a new website (http://kickaas.typepad.com) aimed at eliminating all agricultural subsidies, which should inspire people and organisations in developing agricultural countries, like Pakistan, to vigorously participate in the big effort.
(Editorial-Daily Financial Post, Karachi, August 21, 2003)

Posted by: Bashir Ahmed | August 25, 2003 at 06:44 PM

Abolishing all agricultural subsidies

Posted by: Bashir Ahmed | August 25, 2003 at 06:40 PM

Rueben is wrong to think I favour protectionism; it's just that I live in one of the few remaining true rural areas in England (just north of Dartmoor) and just as people in urban areas most likely resent being taxed to provide subsidised public transport with all the resulting waste, corruption, etc. I don't necessarily approve of all that comes with agricultural subsidy but I do recognise that it's an important safety net for both for rural communities and the urban poor.

That developing countries lack similar safety nets is a serious matter and not one I ignore, but the presence of schemes to provide food security, stability of prices, protection of the environment, etc. in the UK and elsewhere are not, of themselves, harmful to other people in other places.

Here are a couple more links to some factual(ish) data:

http://www.bopcris.ac.uk/bop1917/browse/4.html

And a quote for those who believe that NZ farming exists without subsiby or UK assistance -
"New Zealand's most valuable quota market is the 226,700 tonnes (carcase weight equivalent) EU sheep and goatmeat tariff quota, which is worth around $1.4 billion annually, O'Brien said." ref http://www.farm.net.nz/index.cfm?content_id=3731

Compare this with the duty free quota we give to other nations: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldhansrd/vo980512/text/80512w03.htm (sorry this is the most recent table I could find).

Yes the West does screw exporting farmers in developing countries, and this may well have an impact on subsistence farmers too, but it's not just, or even mostly, subsidies that do this. For example the average UK household food budget has something like 1/3 of it's value from farm produce, the rest comes from the added value of processing to produce ready meals, etc. and branding, and of course the "supermarket experience". Quite likely there are people now living in the UK who don't even remember that it used to be normal to only get stuff like bread and fresh vegetables if you got to the shops in the morning. That we now produce so much that it can stay on the shelves all day and the surplus then discarded is a measure of how wealthy we are, rather than subsidising over production. I really can't believe that people want to return to slight shortages of many things. Though in truth that's how most of the world live, so maybe it's only right that we do the same.

Posted by: Michael Saunby | August 21, 2003 at 12:59 PM

I disagree with his snarky if humourously presented protectionism, but Michael makes some valid points regarding presentation. At first read this blog seems very heavy on good vibes and a little light on hard facts. There's a wealth of compelling anti-protectionist information out there, as a glance at Oxfam's site will show. This huge reservoir of hard data is a reason that this issue is one of the few that many conservatives and liberals manage to agree on.

I'd like to link to just one recent example, a very good piece from the centre-right Jacob Levy of the very popular Volokh Conspiracy, but I can't figure out how to do hyperlinks in this format. Any advice?

In the meantime, I'll just paste the addresses:
Article: http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=scholar&s=levy082003
Volokh Conspiracy: http://volokh.com/
(Links via Matthew Yglesias, http://www.matthewyglesias.com/)

Blogs seem to work best if they are centres for informed argumentation. In intelligent disputes, people reach for hard facts, studies, strong evidence, etc, so information exchange is high. Perhaps this isn't feasible on a campaigning blog?

Posted by: Reuben | August 21, 2003 at 12:14 PM

'"the Bush administration has been rightly aggressive, calling for the elimination of agricultural export subsides, a substantial reduction of farm tariffs and significant reductions in trade-distorting domestic support.

"No one is pure on this issue," he admitted, "certainly not the EU nor the United States," but he stressed "We must all work together on this issue...It is critical to Africa."'

http://usembassy.state.gov/ethiopia/wwwh2418.html

I am a registered Republican, I give them money. I will send Bill Frist an email on this subject, as well as one to Pres Bush reminding them of the stated positions of the administration.

I think the real enemies to this cause are to the left, however, as can be seen in some of the posts below. Labor is far more nationalistic than capital, and for good reason.

Posted by: moptop | August 21, 2003 at 12:59 AM

It looks as though less than 100 comments have been added to this site since the Guardian launched it. That seems pretty small. How else do you measure the success, or lack of it, that this blog is enjoying?

Posted by: Terry Maguire | August 20, 2003 at 10:13 PM

Maybe add in your website, top left (above Read) a Why? -- intro
which explains your purposes.

In a banner line, you could have some of the 30 second sound bite quotes/ factoids scrolling.

If you get submissions from these comments, you could include a tip from: tom.grey or somesuch -- so visitors to your site have an incentive to tell you horror stories. Briefly.

Good Luck. Get 3rd world luminaries on board?

Posted by: Tom Grey | August 20, 2003 at 05:15 PM

Though I still think the campaign isn't going to achieve any of the consequences people seem to attribute to ending subsidies, here's a few ideas for how to have a really ineffective campaign :-)

Send thousands of standard letters to politicians, especially those already known to support your cause. (Since you can't be sure they know all the really basic stuff, and like everyone else getting thousands of fan letters is always a great pleasure).

Try to make the arguments really easy for everyone to understand with loads of spin. It doesn't matter if in doing so you include payments for environmental schemes, tax incentives to convert to organic, administrative costs, etc. and express the money involved in terms of pounds per cow pat, or whatever seems most dramatic.

Most important of all, don't bother to explain why you are doing what you are. That environmental schemes should end, that the conversion of farms to organic should end, that rural communities be plunged into deep recession, isn't actually important. What matters is that farming should end in Europe as soon as possible, just as mining, steel making, car manufacture, etc. have all, quite rightly, been scrapped because other countries have cheaper labour. Instead let's concentrate our efforts on world beating media and insurance industries that can employ any number of people because it really doesn't matter how expensive TV programmes or newspapers are once we're living on food, and wearing clothes, produced by slave labour in other lands.

Wouldn't it be great to have a insurance policy that guarantees nobody is ever hungry and a media that ensures everyone understands everything? How much might that cost, and would it have to be paid for out of taxes like our health and education?

Posted by: Michael Saunby | August 20, 2003 at 03:09 PM

August 20, 2003

POLITICIAN RUSHES IN WHERE CELEBS FEAR TO TREAD

BARRY ANDREWS UPSTAGES BONO

U2 frontman Bono may have impressed Brendan O'Connor (Sunday Ind. July 13, 2003) with his willingness to tell "Ireland's toughest interviewer" Primetime's Miriam O'Callaghan to "check your head" over her reflexive anti-Bushism, but he confessed to her that he did not have the courage to take on the Irish farmer about how EU farm supports undermine third world economies.

Fianna Fáil TD Mr Barry Andrews is made of sterner stuff.

The Irish Times reports (Aug 19, 03) that at the Parnell Summer School the Dún Laoghaire TD called on the Government to abandon its support for the current EU farm subsidy system because of the damage being caused to developing countries.

said that Ireland had "no credibility" internationally in promoting the development agenda because of its reliance on augmenting the income of Irish farmers through grants.
He said any attempt to promote development issues during the EU presidency faced a "credibility problem" as a result, despite Ireland's reputation for supporting development work.

To appreciate what kind of courage this takes, it must be remembered that two years ago, the efforts to protect farm subsudies by the French and the Irish government, led by Mr Andrews's party, nearly derailed the Doha trade talks:
... some delegations privately accused Irish Minister for Agriculture Mr Walsh and French Trade Minister Mr Francois Huwart of jeopardising the entire agreement for the sake of national political concerns.
"I don't know what has happened to the Irish. They used to be one of the most popular and co-operative members, but now they always seem to be selfish, saying no," a member of one EU delegation said...

(Irish Times, November 16, 2001).
Kick all agricultural subsidies (kickAAS), the new website promoted by the unlikely combination of The Guardian and Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, is looking for ideas "to kick-start our campaign to help the Third World (and ourselves) by abolishing all agricultural subsidies".

So far, in addition to "viral e-mails" (which we would not recommend, particularly at the moment) they've come up with:

2 Work out ways to influence (by email, petitions, lobbying, demos etc) the politicians actually making the decisions - mainly in the US and Europe. Names and email addresses please.
3 Gather public support from dignitaries and celebs.

We don't think celebs who don't have the courage of their convictions are worth much. But we think that politicians who do should be given pragmatic political support.

www.blog-irish.com

BRAN (Posted on August 20, 2003)

Posted by: Bran | August 20, 2003 at 02:58 PM

Hey this is a popular site! Nice work on your accomplisments!

Posted by: Douglas | August 20, 2003 at 02:34 PM

I think the weblog format of this project is very interesting. I have promoted this site among Norwegian Liberals (www.venstre.no) of which I am a member of the Liberal Youths (www.ungevenstre.no) and editor of the Liberal Youths monthly international magazine. I will be including an article on this site in the September 1st issue. Venstre is part of the Norwegian government (along with Conservatives and the Christian-Democrats), and we have, among others, the agricultural minister. I will investigate further into what is going on here in Norway regarding agricultural subsidies, and will, make an update on the comment pages later. Again, I find this weblog format interesting, and flexible. What experiences do the people behind kickAAS have? Does the weblog format work for you? Good luck, in either case!

Posted by: Raymond M. Kristiansen | August 20, 2003 at 08:17 AM

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