Free trade agreement (FTA) talks between Thailand and the US are not negotiations between governments, but actually conducted on behalf of Thai and American conglomerates, a community-rights activist said yesterday.  Vitoon Liumjamroon, director of the non-governmental organisation Biodiversity and Community Rights Action, Thailand, said at a seminar that the biggest push from the US side for an FTA with Thailand, especially in the issue of intellectual property rights (IPRs), came from US multinational corporations, in particular Monsanto, which holds patents for 80 per cent of the genetically modified organism (GMO) seeds in the market.

Thailand’s agricultural sector will be hit hard if the government’s priority in the negotiations is to achieve a quick outcome, he said.  He said the most worrying development since the collapse of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks in Cancun last September is the US decision to push for bilateral FTAs as a result of the failure of multilateral talks.

The US is trying to force Thailand to accept technology such as GMOs, which would have a direct impact on farmers and the agricultural sector, he said. “These two issues [IPRs and GMOs] are linked. If we allow US GMO plants to be grown in Thailand, our advantage in the agricultural sector of cheaper production costs will vanish, since we will have to depend on expensive GMO seeds from the US,” said Vitoon.

Big American conglomerates would also take control of plantations, he said, adding that the price of seeds in the market would be five to 10 times higher if Thailand allowed the US to have its way.

Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives analyst Thawatchai Dechachate said Thailand should ally with  agricultural export countries to push for negotiations within the WTO instead of bilaterally.

“The WTO has a dispute-settlement body to look after trade distorting measures that one country imposes on another and has power to ask that country to cease unfair practices. We cannot get this from bilateral means,” he said.

Benjaprut Akkarasriprapai
The Nation