A grassroots international coalition from the Global South called out the World Trade Organization (WTO) for knowingly aggravating the current food crisis, demanding its abolition anew.

The Peoples Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) condemned the so-called ‘Geneva Package’ of the WTO, describing it as “hypocritical and shameful” amid the global hunger pandemic “the WTO helped cause” and should be “thrown to the dumpsters” together with the organization.

“It’s clear that the WTO railroaded these watered-down agreements that pander to growing cries of its abolishment while continuing to protect the interest of imperialist countries and their transnational corporations,” said Chennaiah Poguri of PCFS Asia.

PCFS asserts that the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which came to force in 1995, has “demolished developing countries’ capacity to feed themselves” and gave agrochemical and agri-trade TNCs unprecedented control over the global food supply. The AoA, according to Poguri, has caused the current fragility of global food security and facilitated rural plunder in the Global South.

Small fisherfolk groups and advocates, however, had earlier said that the current draft [of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies] “threatens the ability of island nations to manage their own fish stocks” and puts the onus of change on small-scale fishers.

“The final Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies have let China and other big subsidizers walk away with their market share while overburdening small fishers with stringent regulations and criminalizing subsidies for their livelihood,” Fernando Hicap, chairperson of PCFS Asia member National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines (PAMALAKAYA).

“As we have said before, the WTO is beyond reform. The only way out of this food crisis is to abolish WTO once and for all and for states to fulfill the people’s right to food and pursue food sovereignty long shackled by WTO’s AoA,” Poguri said.