Posted on 01/29/2006 11:44:09 AM PST by hedgetrimmer
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's agriculture minister resigned on Tuesday, alleging that a proposed free trade deal with the United States could expose the country to bird flu, foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease.
Laurentino Cortizo told President Martin Torrijos he feared Panama could be forced to ignore its own food health standards in a free trade deal with Washington.
"It worries me enormously that a relaxing of the sanitary measures could put the health and lives of Panamanians at risk," he said in his resignation letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
"Have you analyzed the cost to the country and its producers to recover from a disease such as ... foot and mouth disease, mad cow disease and bird flu?," he said.
The minister's resignation came as negotiators from both countries began three days of talks in Washington in the hopes of finishing work on the free trade pact.
U.S. agriculture officials denied the trade agreement could expose Panama to increased animal diseases.
"There are no grounds to the assertions made by the minister," said Terri Teuber, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agriculture Department. "There's nothing about a free trade agreement, and this free trade agreement in particular, that would weaken food safety standards."
Instead, trade agreements strengthen food safety rules by harmonizing them with international standards, Teuber said.
"The bottom line is the U.S. has one of the safest food systems in the world," she said.
Cortizo also suggested the trade deal could hurt the livelihoods of thousands of rural Panamanians.
The free trade talks started in 2003 but snagged last year on Panama's concerns that tariff-free access to its agricultural markets could hit farmers - particularly pork, chicken and rice producers.
The other nations of Central America have already drawn up a free trade deal with Washington that was due to start on January 1, although its implementation has been delayed.
As Panama's economy is predominantly service-based with a strong maritime and banking sector, it opted to negotiate a separate deal with the United States.
Panama says it exported $433 million of goods to the United States in 2004, around half of its total exports. It imported around $1.8 billion of U.S. goods in the same year.
Critics of the proposed trade deal seized on Cortizo's resignation. "Our health measures are, in a lot of respects, better than those of the United States," said Alexis Soto, an economist with the National Agricultural Organization farm group.
A protest of farm workers was planned for Tuesday afternoon in Panama.
FYI
"free trade" clearly aims to disrupt domestic food supply systems.
Free trade will not be denied.
Not for the moment, maybe in another ten years when its full "benefits" begin to sink in.
Muleteam1
"free trade" is claimed or demonstrated to make inspection of possibly infected animals more difficult.
Muleteam1
Panama need only worry about the displacement of its farmers for American based Fortune 500 "Agribusiness." Its a trend for even American agriculture to be outsourced.
What do you think is a more productive method of agriculture, 40 acres and a mule or 12 hectares and a burro?
In ag the word "productive" is quite expansive in definition. For ex; I raise tomatoes but store bought are cheaper in price but then add in the intangibles such as taste, safety, self satisifaction of raising one's own and the equation jumps in size. But then again I tend to side with the "hippie farmers" versus the agribusiness types anyway.
I'm not all that confident about the quality of food grown in third world countries, myself.
If Free Traders have their way on this, it might effect more than just the country's economic health.
But it all depends on cheap transportaion. It is said that the average food product on the shelves travels 1500 miles before it hits the consumer, but I doubt such arrangements will work out as well in the throes of Peak Oil. IMHO Agribusiness in this country is a huge joke. Its having farmers stand in line for a subsidy payment which they then turn over to a creditor which then constitutes a profit at the Fortune 500 level.
To be honest, I don't know much about Panama, but I tend to perceive all of the latin america countries as having a substantial number doing that.
However difficult sustinance farming may or may not be, it is not very productive and makes it difficult to feed the nation.
There is a degree of romanticism with those operations tho. The reality is that Juan Valdez quit growing coffee beans long ago because he couldn't compete. Instead, he now grows coca.
Good thing we don't have to rely on "hippie farmers" to feed 300 million people.
That and free trade is largely an animal of the WTO in the forms it takes. WTO will not allow member nations to dissallow imports based on possibilities of contamination. Precaution is not allowed to be an impediment to trade. So, say if you have a lot of bad food and want to sell it but there's no proof it's bad.. you sell it and the buyer is stuck. In all likelyhood, the minister's resignation was well founded based on current policy and trade practice via the WTO.
GOSPLAN couldn't have said it better.
There are, by definition, two million farms in the US. The vast majority of farms in this country (90%) are owned and operated by individuals or families. The next largest category of ownership is partnerships (6%). The “Corporate” farms account for only 3% of U.S. farms and 90% of those are family owned. There are still a lot of small farmers out there making a good living from farming.
Unfortunately for those who idealize the hippie farmer and his divinity with the land, less than 50,000 of all those farms account for more than 50% of sales of agricultural products. The trend is toward concentration in agricultural production so that the necessary efficiencies can be achieved to produce the incredible amount of food demanded by domestic and foreign markets at competitive prices.
Some people who don't understand how markets work -- all the government interference advocated by some here notwithstanding -- think that this is really some kind of conspiracy to place food production under the control of others (GOSPLAN?). Tin foilers willingly believe in all sorts of things it seems, except markets.
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