CANADA IS THE WINNER IN WORLD AGRICULTURAL TRADE
QUEBEC CITY, QUE.: "If the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is expanded into the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), I cannot imagine anyone doing better in coming years than Canada has done over the past decade. I cannot imagine that farmers in small island Caribbean nations or tenant farmers in South American nations will be able to do better than Canadian farmers have done. Canada is a 'winner'. The Canadian farm income crisis is what winning looks like. Globalization doesn't work for the 'winners', and it is devastating for the losers," said NFU Women's President Shannon Storey.
"Canada has 12 years experience with 'free trade' with the U.S. Over that time, we doubled agri-food exports to the U.S. and other countries. For Canadian farm families, the result of this trade 'success' is the worst farm income crisis since the 1930s," said Storey.
"Canadian farmers have done everything we were told: We doubled exports and doubled them again; signed the FTA, NAFTA, and WTO; cut subsidies and tariffs; expanded farm size and cut the number of farmers. Canada has embraced and implemented every aspect of the free trade and globalization model. And the result is economic devastation for family farms and rural communities. Farm leaders from Central and South America and the Caribbean should look carefully at the reality in Canada, and compare it to trade advocates' rosy promises of prosperity under the FTAA," said Storey.
Storey and approximately a hundred other farm leaders from North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean met today at the Agricultural Forum. That forum, part of the People's Summit, is taking place in the lead up to the Summit of the Americas (SOA). At the SOA, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and 34 other heads of state will discuss "hemispheric integration" and negotiate the FTAA. The Agricultural Forum ends today.
The results of the Forum will be presented to the plenary session of the People's Summit tomorrow.
On April 21, farm leaders will march together in Quebec and join thousands of workers and citizens in demonstrating their opposition to the destructive effects of globalization.
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