SUPPORT YANG RUMEN, SUPPORT TAIWAN’S FARMERS

Dec. 10, 2005

In implementing the interests of the WTO and the Agreement on Agriculture, the extent to which the Taiwan government has ceded to WTO demands are such as few countries can compare with. We demand the WTO Ministerial Conference apologize to Taiwan’s farmers and issue a statement in support of the case of Yang Rumen, Taiwan’s most recent prisoner of conscience.

We understand that in the process of participating in the WTO most member countries have had to sacrifice the interests of their farmers and agriculture, and many countries have also sacrificed the interest of their consumers. None compare however to the extent and scale of the sacrifices made by the Taiwan government in forsaking the interests of its farmers and agricultural sector, and the rights of its small farmers and consumers.

Taiwan’s per capita national income is close to that of developed nations such as Korea, yet the conditions of its entrance to the WTO are harsher than those of any developed country. Access to the WTO entailed a 20% reduction in the Aggregate Measure of Support, followed by a 40% reduction in the following year, exceeding that of any developed country. However, in its eagerness to gain international recognition, what the Taiwan government has done goes beyond even its conditions for accession to the WTO: Taiwan has given up on such protective measures as Blue Box, de minimus, and other export supports. Taiwan has even given up on the Special Treatment’s protection of rice to the extent where in 2003, imported rice made up 12.3% of total rice consumption, much higher than Japan’s 8%. Since Taiwan’s acession to WTO, farmers have been forced to give up farming, with more than 50% of agricultural land now in disuse.

Taiwan is a small-farming country, with its farmers producing on limited land. Government subsidy is therefore extremely important. The enormous cuts in subsidy plus the huge influx of imported agricultural goods have severely endangered small farmers’ survival and autonomy. By 2004, ten thousand farmers have been forced to seek reemployment while imported agricultural goods glut the local market. Farming communities and movement groups have continuously demanded government attention to this dire situation, yet the government has nonetheless placed priority on accession to WTO out of concern for international recognition and the profit margin of other industries. The son of a farmer, Yang Rumen, in deep anger and frustration, could not but resort to fake explosives so as to remind society and the government of the devastation of Taiwan’s farmers and agriculture.

In actions protesting the government’s violent policies, over a period of one year (from December 2003 to November 2004), 25 year-old Yang Rumen, placed 16 fake explosives in several public sites to demand that the Taiwan government stop its oppression of Taiwan’s farmers. These actions did not harm a single person, yet the Taiwan government has sentenced Yang to seven and a half years in jail and one hundred thousand Taiwan Dollars in fine. This verdict, widely suspected as the result of political intervention, completely ignores the support of all classes and sectors of Taiwan society who have rallied for over a year in support of Yang Rumen, as well as concurrent media sympathy, not to mention how Yang’s sentence is twice the usual length of such cases.

Governments have a responsibility to protect farmers, agricultural industry and agricultural land. The Taiwan government has betrayed this responsibility in the interest of the WTO. We condemn the government’s actions and demand the WTO Ministerial Conference repair rather than condone such betrayal by apologizing to Taiwan’s farmers and supporting Yang Rumen’s case in court.