Farm lobbies prepare for APEC<\/p>\n
By Jack Taylor<\/p>\n
SYDNEY (AFP): Wielding political clout and war chests brimming
\nwith cash, the agricultural lobbies in key Asia-Pacific economies
\nmay determine whether next week's APEC meeting in Osaka is a
\nsuccess or a dismal flop.<\/p>\n
Nothing will be tougher to crack at the Asia-Pacific Economic
\nCooperation (APEC) forum than the plan to demolish internal
\nbarriers in food trade.<\/p>\n
China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are seeking special
\ntreatment for sensitive sectors, including agriculture, in the
\n25-year free-trade blueprint. The move is opposed by the other 14
\nAPEC members, led by Australia, the United States, New Zealand
\nand Thailand.<\/p>\n
The force behind the potential clash are farming organizations
\nin industrialized economies whose power far outstrips the
\nrelatively small number of people they represent.<\/p>\n
It is a power rooted in trade worth billions of dollars -- and
\nin the public's enduring faith in the rural myth.<\/p>\n
None is better organized than Japan's National Federation of
\nAgricultural Cooperative Associations, representing eight million
\nfarmers. It even controls so-called agricultural lawmakers,
\nmostly in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), senior partner in
\nJapan's ruling coalition.<\/p>\n
The federation, also known as Zenno, warns it will fight any
\nattempt to go beyond a 1993 Uruguay Round agreement raising the
\nminimum foreign share of Japan's domestic rice market from four
\nto eight percent over six years.<\/p>\n
\"We have not started lobbying this time,\" a Zenno official
\nsaid. \"But if APEC makes a decision which goes against our
\ncriteria, we will strongly protest against it.\"<\/p>\n
Australian farmers are clamoring for Canberra to take a hard
\nline on prying open other markets, seeing a rich bounty there for
\nAustralian dairy products, meat and fruit.<\/p>\n
\"There is just no point in going to Osaka if the Japanese and
\nother nations want to exclude further agricultural trade
\nliberalization,\" National Farmers' Federation (NFF) President Don
\nMcGauchie said last month.<\/p>\n
Australian officials will work with U.S. officials for
\ninclusion of agriculture, and admit that they worked well
\ntogether against others in the past.<\/p>\n
But Australia has had less success in trying to scrap the
\nUnited States' own market-distorting tools on farm trade.<\/p>\n
Australian sugar exports, for instance, have been cut by two-
\nthirds of their pre-1982 levels at a cost to exporters of US$270
\nmillion by the U.S. sugar regime while export schemes such as the
\nExport Enhancement Program have given U.S. exporters a big
\nadvantage in traditional Australian markets.<\/p>\n
U.S. export subsidies are estimated to cost Australia more
\nthan US$100 million a year. Yet the barriers that could be
\ndemolished by APEC's regional liberalization program by the year
\n2010 -- including US subsidies -- are calculated at US$2.2
\nbillion.<\/p>\n
The NFF, which represents the interests of 120,000 farms --
\nthree percent of Australia's workforce producing 25 percent of
\nits exports -- sees cracking the U.S. nut as being almost as
\ncrucial as ensuring agriculture stays on the agenda.<\/p>\n
U.S. farm exports were worth some $45.6 billion in 1994,
\ngenerated by just 3.67 million people.<\/p>\n
Political scientist Stephen Hess, of the U.S. Brookings
\nInstitution, said the figures showed the economic but also
\npolitical muscle of farmers' groups in rural states, including
\nFlorida, the Midwest and California, which translates into muscle
\non Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
The U.S. map is \"so drawn that agriculture becomes a very
\nimportant constituency,\" he told AFP. \"The nature of the agrarian
\nmyth still holds fast in the United States.\"<\/p>\n
South Korean farmers, represented in a powerful federation
\ncalled Junnong, have already shown a willingness to resort to
\nviolence to protect a market for beef and rice which props up a
\ndeclining farm population of six million, mostly in small,
\ninefficient holdings.<\/p>\n
They cannot compete with imports as South Korean rice is five
\ntimes dearer than, say, American rice.<\/p>\n
In December 1993, they showed an ability to make South Korean
\nministers tremble by taking to the streets of Seoul in their
\nthousands in violent protests against a decision by President Kim
\nYoung-Sam to allow rice imports under the Uruguay Round.<\/p>\n
Kim was forced to make a public apology for reneging on an
\nelection promise to bar imports, and sacked his prime minister,
\nalthough the South Korean parliament later confirmed the pact.<\/p>\n
The APEC meeting starts with economy and trade ministers on
\nNov. 16 and 17, followed by summit talks on Nov. 18-19.<\/p>",
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