Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-10-Speech-4-042"
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"en.20030410.3.4-042"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, is the price of our coffee maintained at the cost of our conscience? Coffee is one of the basic products that constitute exports, and for many poor, heavily indebted countries, it is the main source of income. Countries such as Burundi, Ethiopia and Uganda rely on coffee exports for more than 50% of their income.
The situation of the world coffee market, therefore, is not a secondary, minor issue. It is at the very heart of world injustice, which condemns millions of people to poverty and distress. In this regard, the coffee crisis is clear proof of the failure of the world policy of aggravated liberalisation and prioritising market forces. In fact, it is the international institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO that encourage these countries to follow an economic policy oriented towards the external market. Suffocated by debt and subject to the orders of the IMF, which can sometimes act as the world moneylender, these countries throw themselves wholeheartedly into production in sectors in which they possess a relative advantage in relation to the developed countries. In the case of coffee, this advantage is favourable climatic conditions. The WTO then promises them free access to the world market. Due to the law of supply and demand, however, market value is unstable and, when prices fall, the multinationals that control the market take steps to preserve their profit margins. The entire drop in the market value is therefore passed on to small farmers and plantation workers, so much so that consumers in developed countries do not even see a drop in the price of their cup of coffee. Not to mention working conditions for women and child labour.
This has been proven. An end to world injustice cannot be achieved by greater liberalisation, more free trade or increased deregulation – quite the opposite. What coffee farmers need is an international coffee market that is regulated to a greater degree, to prevent overproduction taking hold, so that the quality of products is guaranteed and controlled, so that profits in this sector are divided fairly and so that decent working conditions are guaranteed. Let us hope that we remember this lesson at the next round table of the International Coffee Organisation, at the next G8 summit and, most importantly, at the next WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun in September. We shall continue to be extremely vigilant, Commissioner."@en1
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