Published: July 8, 2012
BY: Paulina Muñoz Samaniego. (Spokesperson Ecuador Decides)
BY: Paulina Muñoz Samaniego. (Spokesperson Ecuador Decides)
Despite the widespread understanding that the cause of the global crisis - economic, environmental and civilisational - is fundamentally due to the imposition of neoliberal policies promoted by large multinationals and financial mafias, in collusion with certain governments, there is a stubborn desire to continue with the same: free trade at all costs, even though, in terms of the effects on the population and the impossibility of macro-economic recovery, the various crises indicate the total exhaustion of this model.
Free Trade Agreements continue to be the preferred strategy of transnational corporations to pass us the bill for their fraud and try to mitigate and save, in vain, the unavoidable failure and collapse of their so-called civilization. For this reason, social organizations and citizens of Ecuador have assumed our rights and, as key actors, have succeeded in defeating this new colonial project in previous years, such as the so-called FTA with the United States.
This is the context in which the European Union, and specifically Capital and its companies, are attempting to impose their neoliberal agenda with negotiations to obtain trade agreements, initially called Association Agreements and now Multiparty Agreements; all of this as an attempt to initially impose on the governments of our countries in the Andean Area an ambitious Free Trade Agreement, without having to mortally wound the Andean Community of Nations, contravening the call of their own parliament to negotiate an Association Agreement from Block to Block and then discarding the pillars of Political Dialogue and Cooperation; which reveals their real intention to sign a simple and hard Free Trade Agreement, as already recognized by Commissioner Mandelson at the Summit of Presidents of LAC-EU in Lima May 2008, when he stated that the commercial pillar of the Association Agreement was, essentially, a Free Trade Agreement and that they would not accept proposals outside that framework, adding that “whoever insisted on these proposals would be excluded from the negotiations.”
Beyond the public statements, as well as the alleged progress and acceptance of the EU to negotiate content other than that of a FTA, once again on March 16, 2012, the European Commission assured that they are not willing to process with Ecuador any form of trade agreement other than the one signed with Colombia and Peru, as stipulated in article 329 of the final text of the FTA signed by these countries.
An FTA that not only violates our constitution, among others, in the articles: Chapter Two, Art. 417 International treaties and instruments, Art. 281, food sovereignty, equitable access to production factors, Art. 313. - The State reserves the right to administer, regulate, control and manage strategic sectors, in accordance with the principles of environmental sustainability, precaution, prevention and efficiency Art. 400. - sovereignty over biodiversity, whose administration and management will be carried out with intergenerational responsibility. The conservation of biodiversity and all its components, in particular agricultural and wild biodiversity and the country's genetic heritage, is declared to be in the public interest. Art. 421. - The application of international trade instruments will not undermine, directly or indirectly, the right to health, access to medicines, inputs, services, or scientific and technological advances.
An FTA that not only violates our constitution, among others, in the articles: Chapter Two, Art. 417 International treaties and instruments, Art. 281, food sovereignty, equitable access to production factors, Art. 313. - The State reserves the right to administer, regulate, control and manage strategic sectors, in accordance with the principles of environmental sustainability, precaution, prevention and efficiency Art. 400. - sovereignty over biodiversity, whose administration and management will be carried out with intergenerational responsibility. The conservation of biodiversity and all its components, in particular agricultural and wild biodiversity and the country's genetic heritage, is declared to be in the public interest. Art. 421. - The application of international trade instruments will not undermine, directly or indirectly, the right to health, access to medicines, inputs, services, or scientific and technological advances.
Art. 422.- No treaties or international instruments may be entered into in which the Ecuadorian State cedes sovereign jurisdiction to international arbitration bodies, in contractual or commercial disputes between the State and private natural or legal persons.
Art. 402. - The granting of rights, including intellectual property rights, over derived or synthesized products obtained from the collective knowledge associated with national biodiversity is prohibited.
Art. 288 Public purchases will comply with criteria of efficiency, transparency, quality, environmental and social responsibility and will prioritize national products and services, particularly those from the popular and solidarity economy, and from micro, small and medium-sized productive units," among others.
Risks of this FTA in some areas:
- Agriculture
Subsidized European products manufactured with high technology would compete with national products in the Ecuadorian market, which would lead to the bankruptcy of agricultural producers in our country. Ecuador could end up consuming European products to the detriment of local economies and ancient foods used by communities.
With the introduction of genetically modified seeds (GM) as part of a single technological package that includes the mandatory use of agrochemicals, the use of ancestral seeds is put at risk and farmers are becoming dependent on European products. This would lead to a progressive loss of food sovereignty and biodiversity with major impacts on the environment.
- Intellectual Property
It affects many other areas such as: health, agriculture, ancestral knowledge and biodiversity.
- Health
Among the many issues raised by the EU in terms of health, one of the most worrying is access to medicines, genetic heritage and biodiversity. It is requesting a series of protections (patents, test data, dual uses) for the medicines of its pharmaceutical companies, in order to extend its monopoly on the market, in some cases for more than 30 years.
When a medicine is protected (patented), it has no competitors on the market for the duration of the patent. During this time, generic medicines that are much cheaper and of equal quality cannot be produced. With the application of dual uses, for example, a medicine that is already on the market can suddenly increase in price and cause its generic versions to be taken off the market.
- Investments
The European Union demands guarantees for its companies' investment through measures such as the so-called "indirect expropriation" that allows European investors to sue the Ecuadorian State when it establishes rules that "affect" their investment (environmental protection, consumer and community rights, changes in tax policy, etc.). The EU demands that these types of claims be heard in international arbitration bodies such as the ICSID (International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes).
Other measures that are being demanded are those of “Most Favored Nation” and “National Treatment”, the first allows the EU to demand the greatest privilege granted by the Ecuadorian State to another country, and the second refers to European companies receiving the same treatment as national producers.
When foreign investments are overprotected and treated the same as domestic investments, unfair competition is allowed and, what is more serious, the Ecuadorian State is exposed to paying large sums of money if this protection is not maintained.
By accepting the ruling of an international arbitration body, Ecuador increases its chances of losing the lawsuits, as the verdicts of these bodies have historically demonstrated.
- Public Procurement
The EU demands that its companies be treated equally to national companies when participating in tenders to provide services in strategic sectors such as water, energy, telecommunications, non-renewable natural resources, transport, etc.
All of this could lead to Ecuadorian producers going bankrupt and services in strategic sectors being privatized.
- The impact on women's lives.
Market liberalization does not take into account gender-specific factors, which can lead to the intensification of inequality and discrimination processes through the increased feminization of precarious employment, greater exploitation of women and the weakening of their survival strategies.
In addition, trade liberalization also contributes to the expansion of women's participation in the informal economy. Women's work would be intensified by the triple shift and their free time would be reduced, thereby worsening the already deteriorating quality of life of women.
Free trade has not had positive effects on other sectors of national economies, it ends up forming 'islands' of growth within countries. The cases of the maquila (precarious assembly industry) in Mexico is a striking example of the unprecedented impact on women.
Added to the situation described above is the announcement by the Government of the political decision to incorporate Ecuador into MERCOSUR, which makes us wonder if they have not taken into account that it is established that for this to happen, it is a sine qua non condition not to have signed any Free Trade Agreement with other regions.
The contradictions between the official discourse and the practice of the national government's negotiations are evident. It is clear that there is a double discourse or that there is no desire to make the steps taken so far transparent. An additional element that causes us greater concern is the response of Minister Patiño in Memorandum No. SAIT-2O12- in response to the oversight process of Assemblyman Klever Jiménez, who on April 2 of this year, sent a communication requesting information on the status of the negotiations with the EU.
The answers are ambiguous, others, according to the minister, cannot be answered because they are “reserved” and one of the points that totally exposes the way in which the government is carrying out the negotiations, is the one that refers to; in response to question 7 asked by Assemblyman Jiménez, “Explain how it will be guaranteed that this Trade Agreement for Development is not a Free Trade Agreement with the EU”, in the Subtitle Elements, numeral 1. He answers: “1. Bilateral Safeguard intended to protect nascent industry, the development of the country and the eventuality of social disturbances due to the application of the treaty.”
Recognizing that we currently have a Constitution that is based on guaranteeing our rights, both individual and collective, in order to deepen democracy and build the path towards economic equity, social justice and Sumak Kawsay, it is also necessary to be alert and organized.
It would be a great political short-sightedness and a serious strategic error on the part of social movements to consider that because it is written in the Constitution, reality has already been transformed. The changes and transformations that we achieve will be the result of the constant struggles and triumphs that social organizations and progressive sectors, which through historical experience are achieved in the dispute that we maintain with the neoliberal forces, with the de facto power that is still intact in our country and that is also found within the government.
- TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION
Ecuador is restarting a possible trade agreement with the European Union, which involves the issue of biodiversity and intellectual property. Based on what Colombia negotiated in the Multiparty Agreement with the European Union, we can identify some worrying aspects. The issue is addressed in a declarative manner by Art. 201. They ratify the content of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regarding access to genetic resources and knowledge, innovations and practices related to the use of biodiversity (Art. 8j, Art. 15.7).
Colombia and the EU will work together to clarify the issue and concept of misappropriation of genetic resources and associated knowledge, innovations and practices, in order to find measures to address the issue. In addition, the Parties:
• They will collaborate to ensure that intellectual property rights support the rights and obligations of the CBD, with respect to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of local communities in their respective territories. Without prejudice to Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement, the Parties reaffirm their rights and obligations under the CBD: to facilitate access to genetic resources, to the technology that uses such material and the transfer of such technology on mutually agreed terms.
• They recognize the usefulness of disclosing the origin of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge in patent applications, considering that this contributes to transparency regarding the uses of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
• They shall establish, in accordance with their domestic law, the effects of the application of such a requirement in order to support compliance with the provisions regulating access to genetic resources and associated knowledge, innovations and traditional practices.
• They will seek to facilitate the exchange of information on patent applications and patents granted relating to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, innovations and practices, with the aim that such information may be taken into account in the substantive examination, especially of the state of the art.
• They agree to collaborate in the implementation of national frameworks on access to genetic resources and knowledge, innovations and practices.
• They will comply with Articles 2 to 9 of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (1977, amended in 1980).
• They will cooperate to promote and ensure the protection of plant varieties on the basis of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) revised on March 19, 1991, including the possibility of exception to the breeder's right referred to in Art. 15(2) of that Convention.
In addition, Colombia will make every reasonable effort to join the PLT (Patent Rights Treaty).
All these provisions show that the issue of biodiversity is heavily tarnished by “intellectual property” and therefore I would not be in a position to sign this agreement, if the Constitution is to be respected.
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