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Fair trade is a guarantee to development and participation
Poor countries are forced to remove imposed binds on exports and reduce the custom tariff, so that rich countries flood the markets with goods. Farmers who produce food in these poor countries face disasters because of such policies.
It is necessary to make texts about trade in agricultural agreements, as food is the most important among people's needs and agriculture is the source of livelihood for three quarters of the world population. It is unfair to determine the future of food and agriculture through non-democratic agreements. These agreements must be based on food sovereignty, protection of the environment and the public health.
Food must not be produced like any other goods, such as cars and fridges, as food is a vital need and a basic human right, and trade rules in agrarian crops must not be based on trade liberalization.
The World Trade Organization must put the regulations and panels that organize and guarantee justice in international trade. The WTO claims to have achieved progress in reducing the subsidies provided by rich countries to their farmers, while this process has increased by 83 million Dollars, which threatens the livelihoods of the farmers in poor countries. According to the World Bank, subsidized American cotton makes African countries bear 25 million Dollars yearly.
If the door was opened for agricultural competition internationally without fair-trade conditions or regulations, millions of farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America will fail to produce because of the difference and dissimilarity in agrarian productivity between Europe and the U.S. and the developing countries about 10 to 1, which means that national agriculture will stop completely knowing that 60% of the world population live in the countryside and depend on agriculture. This also means that there won't be any self dependent countries in their food. Accordingly, there won't be any political independence for the people of the third world.
Civil society organizations must apply more pressure on governments especially in the Northern countries so that they could consider balance in implementing the conditions of free trade and apply the principles of fair trade to guarantee people's rights to food, work and decent living. CSOs must also raise farmers' awareness so that they could compete in a world governed by the market economy and the values of profit, and build a better and fairer world that guarantees safety, freedom and equality for all humanity.