Bangladeshi Women Reject WTO Negotiations

Hundreds of poor women from rural Bangladesh gathered in the country’s capital, Dhaka, to say ‘no’ to the WTO negotiations currently marred by stalemate in Hong Kong.

|PIC1|The women from the rural regions were joined by garment workers, professionals, artists, singers and housewives as they descended on the city carrying their earthen pots and bamboo winnowers, supported by Christian Aid partner UBINIG.

The demonstrators called on governments to be more accountable to the people when signing WTO agreements, viewed by many in Bangladesh as being ‘anti-people’ and especially ‘anti-women’.

The protestors said, according to Christian Aid: “We are against unfair and unjust WTO Agreements. We do not understand whose agreements these are which have such negative impacts on our lives and on the lives of our future generation.”

In a statement released by UBINIG, women of the organisation stated: "We have seen the results of the prescriptions for so-called development given by World Bank, IMF, ADB and all bilateral and multilateral organisations.

"Our governments have followed these prescriptions without discussions with the people, not to mention women.

"We were against modern agriculture because of the applications of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and their impact on ground water.

|QUOTE|"We have suffered enough over the last 40 years with our land, air, water and even our bodies being poisoned. We have lost cows, goats and hens.

"We had over 15,000 varieties of rice, but now our government is promoting only 30 varieties.

"There are efforts to introduce genetically modified seeds in the name of increased production. We no more believe in the greedy corporate propaganda. We clearly say no to genetically modified organisms (GMO). Bangladeshi farmers will not allow the introduction of GMOs.

"We have seen the negative impact that trade liberalisation has had on our agricultural products. We cannot buy rice, pulses, oil, onion, garlic or ginger produced by our own farmers. We have to buy imported products which are cheaper. Such distorted trade has destroyed our agriculture.

|AD|"There are over 20 million garment workers in Bangladesh of which 90 per cent are women. We are not given proper wages or money for overtime, yet we work 14 hour days.

"We face the risk of fire. When a building collapsed, the workers didn’t even get any compensation. After the phasing out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA), thousands of garment workers lost their jobs. No one took any responsibility.

"The workers permanently face the threat of losing their jobs. Now they talk about market access without any responsibility to workers.

"Women in our rural areas possess great knowledge about plants for use in food and medicine. We are outraged that the multinational corporations have patented many of the plants which have been in use for thousands of years.

"We are against patenting of life forms. We will not allow corporate control over our genetic resources.

"We demand that our water resources are not privatised. As a basic human need, especially in urban areas, we want water to be supplied by our government, not given to corporations. Health and education are our basic rights. These services must be provided by the state and not privatised."

Negotiators at the WTO talks are currently attempting to convince the least developed nations to accept the controversial ‘Improved Market Access’ package, which will see tariffs and quotas on least developed countries (LDCs) exports waived.

Claire Melamed, senior trade analyst at Christian Aid, believes, however, that in reality some poorer countries will not be allowed tariff and quota free access.

“The Americans, for example, are arguing they do not want to accept textiles from Bangladesh,” she said. “Under no circumstances should LDCs make any concessions based on this deal.”