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The Centre for Economic and Social Studies and Centad have jointly organised a one-day workshop on ‘Building Trade Safety Nets in Agricultural Systems in South Asia '. It will be held in Hyderabad , Andhra Pradesh, on March 26, 2007 .
The workshop will be co-sponsored by Centad, New Delhi , and Oxfam International.
The Make Trade Fair (MTF) campaign, which is part of Oxfam International's Global Campaign, works with grassroots-level partners on trade and agricultural issues. It has prepared a study titled ‘Meeting local demands for vegetables and fruits: the dynamics of the farmers' market' (a case study of Uzhavar Sandhai of Tamil Nadu), which will be released at the workshop.
The workshop is being held against a background of growing concern at the direction that world trade is taking. Trade is often referred to as a powerful catalyst for human development. Under the right conditions, international trade can generate powerful impetus for accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. However, the potential for human development is diminished by a combination of unfair rules and structural inequalities within and between countries (UNDP report, 2005).
Existing trade agreements and the present trade flow is neither free nor fair. There are still many non-tariff barriers and a high level of market-distorting subsidies in world agriculture markets. The continuous pressure on developing countries to liberalise agricultural markets, a pre-condition for development, is not justified. Exposure of countries to high trade flows can have an adverse impact by way of lower wages and unemployment and, if it combines with high levels of indebtedness, can push agrarian systems into deep crises.
There is an urgent need to re-visit trade policy reforms and their impact on agriculture. Most developing countries have converted all non-tariff measures, variable tariffs and other measures to simple tariff lines, in conformity with their obligations under the World Trade Organisation. Many countries, subsequent to liberalisation, witnessed a surge in agricultural imports. For example, after Sri Lanka liberalised import barriers in the 1980s, a number of commodities such as potatoes and onions became uncompetitive and highly volatile in the domestic market. There was also a drastic drop in the production of paddy, a major food staple.
With uncertain weather conditions and low technology inputs, which make it difficult to get high dividends from small-scale farming, farmers rely on market and support institutions to secure them a viable livelihood in the face of shortfalls in production.
Most farmers in the region operate without any social safety systems in place, and when competitive imports flood their markets their own farm food produce becomes relatively expensive. When fiscal constraints limit a country's ability to support its agriculture, trade policies are the safe bet, instilling confidence and value for the hard labour.
The current stalemate in the WTO negotiations has introduced more uncertainty in efforts to reform existing asymmetries in trade. There has been a spurt in regional engagements with the focus of trade shifting from the WTO to regional and preferential trading agreements. Such engagements run the high risk of further liberalising outside the ambit of the WTO and imperilling the farming community.
With governments' interventionist policies either curtailed or withdrawn, there is an urgent need to provide some sort of safety system that could provide the desired protection to the farming community against the risks of trade.
The workshop is expected to draw inferences from country/regional experiences from crop/enterprise/agriculture in South Asia . It will also try to suggest ways to provide a trade safety net that will not just mitigate the risks from trade but also provide a facilitative environment that makes trade work in the interests of farmers in the region.
At the one-day workshop, papers will be presented by eminent economists and policymakers from South Asia .
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