No to "dumping"” “

“Abolishing dumping is good for everyone!”. That’s the slogan that unites many aid organizations in Europe (including the Italian ‘Volunteers in the World-FOCSIV’ and the English ‘CAFOD’) and throughout the world to press for an end to the protectionist regime in agriculture which “is starving two thirds of humanity”. What is curbing the economic growth of the developing countries is in fact the policies of subsidizing exports (dumping) practiced by the industrialized countries, including Europe. Dumping permits the rich countries to produce goods as a very low cost and sell them abroad at a price lower that their production cost, even lower that the prices of the same goods produced locally, thus increasingly penalizing the already fragile economies of the poor countries. The “No Dumping” Campaign was launched against this form of state subsidy in November 2002 (during the Social Forum in Florence). It has led so far to the sending of over 50,000 postcards asking the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi to reform the EU aid policy that is damaging the economies of the developing countries; and the cost of this aid is hitting the pockets of citizens in the EU through an increase in consumer prices. In practice, the organizers of the campaign explain, “we pay a tax to starve the world”. FOCSIV is currently drumming up further support for the campaign and exerting political pressure on the European Union. Last week, “in the greatest secrecy – the organization explains -, a meeting of EU ministers took place in Geneva, at which Europe formalized its position with regard to the new system to be given to world trade in preparation for the 5th ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) scheduled to be held in Cancun (Messico) from 10 to 14 September. A position that confirms the EU’s unwillingness to negotiate the abolition of dumping . If this position wins the day at Cancun, we’ll have a situation in which the northern hemisphere will remain protectionist, while the southern hemisphere will be forced to liberalize its trade. We’ll closely monitor the next meetings of the European Union and bring more concerted political pressure to bear during the Cancun summit”. The EU is in fact the leader in the granting of subsidies within the area of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development): in the period 2000/2001 the EU alone spent 2,800 billion euros to support its own agricultural exports. A recent research project showed that the elimination of such subsidies could lead to a growth of agricultural trade of over 50%, with earnings of 160 billion dollars for the OECD countries. A system of fair trade “Fair and cooperative trade is an alternative approach to conventional trade; it promotes social and economic justice, sustainable development, respect for persons and for the environment”. So says the European Charter of the criteria of fair and cooperative trade. This is a movement that has drawn the attention of the European Parliament more than once in the last decade. In 1991 a resolution was passed in favour of active support to small coffee producers in the Third World, followed by another resolution in 1994. With the approval of Law 198 in 1998, the European Commission is asked among other things to turn cooperative trade into an integral part of EU foreign policy. Recently, in 2002, in the communications of the European Commission to the Council on fair trade, the need for clear systems of business certification was underlined; and the system of seals of approval used by fair and cooperative trade was indicated as one of the most advanced of its kind. At the present time 2740 businesses practice fair and cooperative trade in Europe; there are 97 fair trade importers, 96,000 volunteers and the turnover is estimated at around 369 million euros.