(Jakarta, 16 december 2011) The WTO ministerial meeting on December 15-17, 2011- is taking place at a critical time of crisis of neoliberal regime worldwide. The multi-crisis started in 2007 with the food crisis and is still not resolved. Meanwhile, millions of peoples live in worse conditions than 16 years ago, when the WTO was created. At that time, Europe and the US were in the forefront of the creation of this trade organization.

Opening the market by cutting tariffs, and cutting subsidies in favor of the people was the bottom line of the neoliberal policies pushed by the WTO under the belief that all would benefit and the environment would be protected, as mentioned in the WTO’s mission statement. But reality showed us that it did not work that way.

Since the beginning of the Doha Round negotiation in 2003 (also called the “Development Round”), la Via Campesina suspected that it would fail. There is no development for the people under neoliberal policies.

Now people are marching and protesting in Spain, Italy and many others, including the US with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement. The 2008 Wall Street financial meltdown, caused by years of deregulation and lack of government oversight, cost Americans $14 trillion in lost wealth and eight million lost jobs. Today some 25 million people are unemployed or underemployed. Neoliberal policies were borne in Europe and the US, but they are now back- lashing on their own people, creating a historical social and economical crisis.

Farmers need access to credit, a fair mortgage on their land, fair prices for the food they produce, and seeds that are not patented by Monsanto or other big corporations. Consumers need to be able to purchase healthy and local food, and to earn a living wage, as Jim Goodman wrote in his article on “Occupy the Food System”. He is a dairy farmer from Wisconsin and a member of Family Farm Defenders and the National Family Farm Coalition, member of Via Campesina in the US.

"The WTO is one of the neoliberal policies pillars – along with the World Bank and the IMF. The truth is that the neoliberal regime only benefits big transnational companies. Neoliberalism is nothing more than a corporate driven agenda” said Henry Saragih from Indonesia – general coordinator of Via Campesina.

In the WTO ministerial summit in Seattle in 1999, La Via Campesina already stated that the neo-liberal agricultural policies were leading to the destruction of our family farm economies and to a profound crisis in our societies, and that they were threatening the very coherence of our societies. The current global situation shows that this analysis was right.

“WTO Kills Farmers” said Lee Kyung Hae, a farmer from South Korea during the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003, before stabbing himself to death during the protest. His sacrifice will never be forgotten. In 2005, thousands of peasants and small farmers were arrested in Hong Kong during the 6^th WTO ministerial meeting in their struggle against the WTO.
“Food sovereignty is our answer to our common challenges. Too many people are suffering as a result of the WTO’s policies.

WTO out of agriculture and food has became a strong demand of Via Campesina from Seattle untill now. The current global food crisis is due to the very fact that food trade is in hands of a few TNCs" said Yudvhir Singh, a Via Campesina leader from India.

During the climate talks in Durban last week, some efforts were made to include the WTO principles in order to solve the climate crisis. This move went clearly in the free market logic of considering climate as a commodity. Trade will no solve the climate crisis. Free trade regime has led to the accumulation of capital (and power) in the hands of a few and has allowed the destruction of climate for profit’s sake.

We saw at the last G-20 Summit in Cannes, France that the prevailing economic model was no longer sustainable. An economic model that is primarily designed to increase industrial and economic growth is no solution to the looming multiple crises. There is a need for a profound change in the modes of production and consumption.

La Via Campesina, representing 200 million farmers around the world repeats that it is time to end WTO. It is time to end “One Size Fit For All” policies.
We call all governments, local authorities, national and international institutions to implement the concept of Food Sovereignty. Food sovereignty is based on the people rights to feed themselves and to chose their own food policies. The implementation of those rights will allow peasants and small farmers to feed the world.