11. European Union Free Trade Agreement (EU FTA) Protest. September 18-19, 2013.

This week negotiations between Thailand and the European Union were held in Chiang Mai to discuss a Free Trade Agreement. Countries which are developing, like Thailand, have never done well with Free Trade Agreements. It means they enter agreements with other countries without any preferential tax breaks, and since Thailand is still developing, many small farmers and businesses will suffer. Thailand imports more processed goods (expensive) and exports more raw goods (inexpensive), so the agreement is not in their favour. Furthermore, the European Union hopes to tighten up patent laws and intellectual property rights (IPR) over pharmaceuticals and agricultural products. Currently to do business in Thailand, a foreign company must lease their patents, which allows Thailand to manufacture drugs, software, what have you, locally and cheaply. With the FTA, the patent laws will be tightened up, no more licensing, and the time a patent is valid will be extended from 20 years to 25 years. This would mean drugs will be more expensive in Thailand. Those with chronic conditions requiring expensive patented drugs will suffer - they will no longer be able to afford medicines to keep them alive. 


In regards to agriculture: there are large corporate producers of food that stand to gain from the EU FTA, since they can ship their produce to Europe tax-free. The chicken and shrimp industries will gain, but other smaller farmers will not benefit from such an agreement. As what happens in the developed world, to earn a decent income, farmers must buy in to the corporate method of food production. This means they purchase seed, fertilizer, and pesticides from the agricultural supplier, and in return their produce is sold to the corporate distributor. The distributor will not buy produce from farmers who are not in their system. Farmers who want to cultivate a wider range of varieties of, say, rice or chickens, will not be able to sell their produce, so why do it? The danger for the future is this narrowing of the gene pool to a few strains means total dependence on a system that, if something goes wrong, everyone will go hungry. The push-back is to allow farmers to be in control of what they grow, how they grow it, and ensure a wide variety of produce reaches the consumer. Besides, variety is the spice of life!


So the protest was held by Thai farmers and medical professions who foresee the cost of food and drugs increasing.


It was a sweltering day in Chiang Mai for the walk to the 5-star hotel Le Meridien where the negotiations were taking place. The goal was to give the negotiators a letter outlining the issues Thai farmers and medical suppliers see as sticking points.

Pun Pun has a stake in this adventure, so we were there for support. It was a gentle protest. I mean, Thai farmers? What will they do? Throw rice at police?


It was peaceful.


It made the front page of the Bangkok Post:

Here's the story:

http://m.bangkokpost.com/topstories/370386



On a more personal note, I took photos. Here they are:

Poster at our booth

Slogan: Occupy our seeds

Solidarity

Giving away Pun Pun seeds at the protest

Break dancing entertainment at the event

Audience enjoying the entertainment

Protest banner 

Gearing up for the protest walk

Walking to Le Meridien Hotel

About 5,000 protesters joined the walk

About 500 Riot Police guarding the hotel

Line between the protestors and the hotel.
The event was peaceful

Sitting and waiting for the EU negotiator to
come out and accept the letter of protest

Life is not for sale: reference to patented
organisms developed by corporations

It was a fun day,  but more importantly, mission accomplished. The negotiator came out to greet the crowd and accepted the letter of protest.